David:

We arrive in Ilha Grande at about three. We dock up and head down the beach to our hostel, the Lizzard Hotel or Che Lagarto Hostel. It is at the end of the beach over looking the bay. The bay itself is full of small fishing boats and speedboats. The surrounding area is all jungle, and all hilly.... its simply not real and we keep looking around and rubbing our eyes wondering what is really going on (was there something funny in our breakfast????). We spend the evening chilling out, and Regina, Steffen and I go out for dinner to an all you can eat buffet bbq (good eating!!!). After dinner its back to the hostel, the reggae music can be heard all the way up the beach, where we are joined by the Mayo boys, and we start talking with a girl from near Rio and another dutch girl who is travelling with her. Tatchi (the brazillian girl) immediately falls in love with Heygina and her amazing red hair, and I think the feeling is mutual for her black hair and crazy latin eyes!!!! She calls regina HEYgggeenah, i think its how they pronounce their R´s....

Day two on the island, reg and I decide to go in search of the Lopes Mendes beach, the nicest on the island. The only problem is there are no roads, so we have to find the trail.... we found the wrong trail... the right one was beside our hostel (wooops!!!). Anyway we headed off over the jungle and ended up in what looked like the town from Lost, except more abandoned looking. Turns out it is an old prison colony, and the prison was imploded 16 years before (the black and white photos are from the museum). We take a stroll around the prison (check out the photos of the cell with the naughty photos on the wall), and then head down to the beach. At this point we realise that we have slightly messed up our plan (there is no shop for water), so we take a few snaps of the beach, stick our feet in the water and head back over the island for home. The trail we took is prob the only road on the island, 5 miles over and 5 back... half up and half down... covered in broken bricks and tiles... great for walking on in flip flops (lesson number 1 learned). On the way back, towards the end of the hill, I was walking in front of Regina when I see something on the side of the path and nearly jump 20 foot backwards. Lying in the tyre tracks of the jeep that just passed down the hill is a red and white snake (we are both thinking coral snake...). After restarting our hearts, we go to have a look (he isnt moving). I grab a stick and some stones, the stones dont scare him... I think he is dead already!!! A brazillian guy following us down the hill approaches... I warn him there is a snake and he warns me he doesnt speak english. I do my best to impersonate a snake and he replies with what sounds like a question ending with the word VIVA??? Ok so we both think its dead, I ask him if it will bite us and kill us, he tends to agree. I take a few photos and we take the long way around him... exciting stuff!! For the rest of the walk, every twig, leaf and shadow turns into a snake... this is the jungle at its best for us and we are on a wide road (oh well!!!). Back to the town we stock up on water and biscuits and head back to show off our pictures of the snake we killed... nobody believes me!!!!

Back at the hostel, it turns out we werent the only ones that had an eventful day. Steffen went for a walk and ended up getting chatted up by some locals on the beach. He spent the day with one of them and got her email address... thats when things got interesting. It seems brazillian women can be kind of clingy... and psychotic!!!! She emailed him to say she had a nice day, he replied, then she emailed him saying she would like to go to Holland and meet his parents... he didnt reply.... she emailed again asking why he hadnt replied... he still didnt reply..... she phoned the hostel... He told her he would email after breakfast, she wanted to meet up (her emails were written in portugese and translated by google...very funny stuff). We had a good laugh about them getting married for the rest of the trip (the story doesnt end there though folks!!!!)

On day three in the island, it became clear that regina had done something to her ankle.. sprain maybe.. and it had been getting worse. We said we would rent some kayaks (you dont use your legs for them). We went out for about two hours on them and it was good craic. There was a strange smell of some kind of herb (thyme I think) out by a smaller island. No fishys or turtles or Dolphins joined us, but it was a nice little paddle all the same. After some grub I decided to head off for some exploring while Reg recovered at the hostel (she was fine with it btw). I had seen signs for some ruins and a waterfall the day before on a run through the jungle, so i decided to walk out to check them out. The sign said it was about 3-4 miles. Off I went anyway, hot as hell in there and very jungly. Saw some monkeys and two Iguanas on the way but they were too fast for my camera work. The waterfall was a bit disappointing, not least because there was a young couple playing in the pool (nothing bold of course), so I took a photo (of the waterfall) and headed off back. On the way I got bored of walking so decided to run home, turned out to be waaaay more fun heading up and down the trail, it was really hilly and the sweat was pouring off me but I was flying so I kept going. The ruins turned out to be ruins of a newish building, but completely overgrown so I kept on going. Got a few photos of some beaches on the way back in (including the black beach... not a racist thing.. a colour of sand thing). Back to the hostel, jumped in the sea, and then went out for dinner again.

The hostel itself was nice. It was quite loud until late at night, and we were in the closest room possible to the music, but we were moved from a ten bed dorm to a four bed ensuite dorm so it was better. The hostel has a balcony over looking the bay, and we sat out here for breakfast.. fruit, bread and coffee.

There is a lot more to say about the island, but not right now (Im writing this in Paraty, and Regina is back at the b&b with her foot up, and thirsty!!! Il update it again later... til next time... enjoy the rain in Ireland...

Continueing on from before.... hmm where was I???

On our third day, we decided to head for the Lopes Mendes beach. The two mayo lads had camped their the night before and we had heard it was the nicest beach on the island. At this stage reginas ankle was definately too sore for the 2 hour hike across to that side of the island, and although I offered to carry her, in the end we decided to take a boat for 20 reals. The evening before, steffens future brazillian wife had asked to meet up with him at ten the next day, so after breakfast the three of us waited with baited breath for her to turn up with the entire family and the parish priest. After an hour of waiting me and reg got bored and wandered off doing various things. At about eleven though, we both came back to the balcony and there she was, with her laptop, and her mother, and her dog... this was going to be a fun day!!!! So we all decided to get the boat to the beach anyway. It wasnt exactly the best day on the island weather wise and was threatening to rain, but the boat was over to the other side pretty quick and after a short walk to the beach we realised it was worth the bad weather. The sand felt like walking on flour, and looked like it too (slightly wholemeal flour). There was hazy rocks and jungle covered hills at one end, and it seemed to just bend off into the distance the other way. At the back of the beach were lots of trees with some kind of fruit (abrico....?), which tasted like banana (manky banana). The waves were massive, but a little bit dodgy looking, they seemed to overlap so the current wasnt going to be good. Stef needed to escape the clutches of his bride to be, so the two of us headed in for a swim. The two brazillians sat on the beach shivering... we thought it was perfect. Reg joined us, but the current was too strong and she got washed out to sea...... well just a little.... (she was never in any danger dont worry, she was knee high). It was hard work though walking through it!! Since most people have been to a beach I needn´t get into any more details than that. On the way back to the boat, the mother got a piece of Jaxa fruit from a little hippy girl making flowers from material and gave us all some (tasted like mankyish fizzy pineapple in my opinion). Its weird, and I have yet to look it up, and prob wont bother either.... At this point I think we learned that she was an aunt not a mother, and the dogs name was Federico (I got him to SIT!!!). Got the boat back to the town, and there was an emotional goodbye (me and reg ran off).

This maybe isnt worth mentioning in the book, but sure it happened so why not. The three of us went for dinner the last evening. Decided we would go for pizza. Me and Stef ordered a Large Portugese pizza each and regina a Medium Pepperoni. Stef tried to be smart and order in portugesish, I pointed at the pictures. A little while later the first pizza came out... a Large... half pepperoni and half portugese. She tried to explain by drawing an S then a line and then an E and then a squiggle. We ate up, and she brought a medium with the same formation, half and half... again we ate... that was it... I was still hungry and the lads werent, raw deal!!! We went for cakes, they have trolleys that they push around the island. Regina got a little chocolate and fudge ball thing (suprise suprise) and I got a coconut and rice pudding block that was possibly the heaviest piece of food I have ever had, and not so nice.

Thats about all I can remember from the Island. Yesterday morning (tuesday 2/11) we got the ferry to Angra dos Reis (the kings creek), and got a local bus for 2hrs to Paraty, and got a local bus for 2hrs to Paraty, and got a local bus for 2hrs to Paraty..... they charged us pieces of eight (wheh wheh wheh). Initial thoughts of Paraty..... WEIRD.... find out what its turned out to be like when I write it up

Forgot to add this, and it was the weirdest thing yet (wonder how many times ive said that already, i havent read any of this back yet)... we were walking down to the pub for a drink and we saw a fire brigade pickup coming towards us, as it passed we noticed a coffin in the back of it on the bed of the truck. The gate was down and the coffin was just hanging over the edge.... it passed back an hour later empty. Also firebrigade is Bombadier in portugese, seems counter intuitive to me but anyway. Gotta go eat now, ssssssssstttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrvvvvvvvvvvvvviiiiiiiin