The bus journey to Rio de Janiero was actually super, the bus was brilliant and had reclining seats. Would have been perfect if they had sorted out the videos every time to include English subtitles and that we didnt have to watch "Forest Gump" twice freezing at exactly the same point both times. Although the 28 hour journey gave us plenty of time to catch up on some much need sleep, Hana & I did find it hard to readjust our body clocks back to sleeping at night and not during the day! We arrived at the bus terminal and believing we had enough time to continue straight to our next destination we found our next bus, I think they were used to backpackers because when we asked for directions at the help desk they recited the details perfectly without even a stutter. We were confused briefly to what appeared to be a time change, this just confused us but we still had time to run to the bus before it left.

Two hours on the bus flew by when you are used to long ones, and before we knew it we were jumping of the bus and heading to the port. Ilha Grande is the third largest island in Brazil and has some of the best beaches. We were all a little nervous as it had started to rain, was this going to be the weather for the next 4 days? I hope not I need to improve my tan!!

Brazil although a far more developed country is still holding true to South America form, we finally board the boat only an hour late for the captain to take us to the petrol station and while running around smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish he filled up the tank. We finally arrived at Ihla Grande where we had been clever and tried to book ahead a hostel so ignoring the help from the locals who all told us our hostel was fully booked we walked the 2 km over sand. I know this doesn't sound very much but remember we had our snail house (15 KG backpack) and it was in the heat. We finally arrived to find yes the locals were right the hostel didn't get our booking and indeed they were fully booked, but the very kind slimy man offered a space on his boat floor! I was up for it but Becki and Cat suffer from sea sickness. After about almost an hour of lugging our bags around we came across a gem. We could paid for double bed room but they would put two extra beds in for us for a really cheap rate. We did this for two nights then Becki and I got kicked out so we rented a tent!

The next day we tried to do the nice nature walk over the island to find the tiny white sandy beaches but after about 45 minuets of walking in the jungle sweating our little buts off we gave up and headed back. We were gutted as after talking to some guys we found out that if we had carried on about ten more minuets we would have found one. Oh well our beach had white sand, blue waters what more could you want? We spent the day there swimming, playing hackie sack and sunning ourselves. That night George and Cat offered to make us dinner if we repaid the favor then next day. We had a very typical traveling dish of pasta bolognase but the garlic bread they made was amazing. We went for a walk around the island and found some little market stalls and the cake man! So of course it would have been rude to not try the cake mans treats, which we continued to do so every night.

The next day we split into our twos and Becki and I went back to the beach and did the same as yesterday while Cat and George hired a kayak. The rest of the day Becki and I went for a walk where we found the best ice cream place ever. It was pick and mix, weigh and pay ice cream, where they had every flavor in every way of eating it with ever toppng, it was epic! That night it was our turn to cook and we had very specific guide lines as both Cat and George had a few things they weren't keen on! We were very proud of our Ilha Grande meal consisting of none lumpy mash (the island), carrots (boats), peas (the people swimming), chicken (rocks) and gravy (the sea), it was yum! Then finished the meal off with cake and ice cream and a walk around where Cat got conned to join the old stoner men playing on their drums.

Our last day was Spent the same as before on the beach chilling and waiting for Gill and Pam to come over on the boat. Like the good explores they are they found our hostel and we all had a few drinks and went to dinner. We showed them the cake man and the amazing ice cream shop. That day we had booked a fast transfer to Rio that would drop us right outside of our hostel, well not quite but we made it in one piece. We left Ihla Granda feeling a little bit gutted as we were later told there was a return boat to the secluded beaches but as there were no cash points on the island we decided not to look in the tour companies so we didn't spend any money, oh well we do have Fiji!