Ilhe Grande… A little piece of paradise

Ilhe Grande….wow where do I begin. Again the American we met in Sao Paulo recommended we stop by Ilhe Grande if we could, we were sold at the mention of quiet beaches and nature walks. We caught a bus to the Angra dos Reis Port from Paraty, from here it was a 30 minute boat trip to the island. For some strange reason we took Gulia´s advice and decided let´s not book accommodation and just find a cool spot when we get there… This COULD work for you if you arrive early enough, you can speak Portuguese andddd you have like no bags! I enjoyed a sun downer on the beach while Nick did all the work, he found an internet cafe where he managed to book a gorgeous looking air bnb called the Rainforest Tree house – Just what we were looking for!! We had to wait to get a reply but a little while later we heard back from the host who would meet us further down on the beach.

Our epic host – Ricardo

By now it was dark and we needed to make our way up, UP, and UPPP to the tree house, the next day we chuckled by how close it actually was, but when you are walking in the dark with just a head torch, two backpacks with our groceries on a trail that involved climbing over boulders and fallen over trees…. it seemed pretty far! Ok lucky for me Ricardo carried my backpack 🙂 🙂 Poor Nick was drenched in sweat by the time we made it up there! It was sooo worth it though…

Our beautiful tree house room.

Ilhe Grande island has been recognised by Brazilian and foreign tourists as one of the worlds most beautiful places to visit. The tropical beaches, the luxuriant vegetation, the animals – so much beauty to take in! The undeveloped island which does have roads or cars is 193km2, the island used to be a hideout for sea pirates and then much later was a top security prison which was closed down in 1994. It is now a top tourist attraction where eco-tourism is flourishing.

There are many beaches scattered throughout the island, all of which you have to hike to or catch a moto taxi by boat. The first day we decided to hike to one of the closer beachs, this still took us 2 hours to get to. The hike was beautiful though, deep in the cool, shaded rain forest the walk was pleasant. Along the way we were spoilt enough to see the endemic Caninana snake (commonly known as a yellow rat snake) the one we saw was right near the path – an adult which must have been close to 3 metres in length, we followed it for a while as it was just so exciting to experience this magnificent creature in it´s own natural habitat. We saw lots of little marmoset monkeys, a few mischevious looking squirrels munching on some nuts and a wood pecker. At this stage we were regretting not packing our hybridge camera which takes much better photo´s if you need to zoom in and focus on something.

After much relaxation, well Nick was way more active than me, running the trails and discovering beautiful beaches, we decided to do a boat tour on one half of the island with some friends we had made. Tiago (our skipper) took us to some places I cannot even begin to explain. The colours of the ocean were so many shades of blue it was almost too much to appreciate. One of the travellers we met would paint instead of take a photo – he did this as he felt he would remember it a lot better compared to just taking a photo.

One of the stops was to a natural made cave, this was quite an adventure. Acaia cave is a flooded cave which is only accesible through a small crack in the rocks, you have to crawl through the cracks because the space is less than a meter tall. The reward at the end of the crack is magnificent. The water is a luminescent aqua blue which makes you feel like you have discovered a little piece of heaven. The waves come crashing through a small gap at the bottom of the cave which adds to the whole experience, there is a water vacuum effect in the cave so one minute you are waste deep in the water and the next only ankle deep. This was a highlight for us and something we will never forget, thanks to Nicks GoPro we managed to get a few shots 🙂

In the Acaia cave

On one of our beach stops we spotted a gorgeous green turtle gliding through the water. This beach is well known for it´s turtles. We got into the water with her and she let us follow her for quite some time. Swimming slowly behind her, watching her scope the area for food and come up now and then for a breath.

We ended our day with a delcious lunch on another quaint and peaceful beach. What a day and time we got to experience at the beautiful Ilhe Grande – a must see!

L

Paraty…. & I’m not talking €:$

It is a 6 hour bus trip from São Paulo up to Rio de Janiero so we decided to break it up. We met a ‘merican (Mike) at the São Paulo Che Lagarto hostel who had just come back from a place called Paraty & Trindade which he recommended.  That was all the motivation we needed 🙂

By my maths with it being half way between São & Rio it would take 3 hours. No. It took 6. That’s Brazilian roads for you.

We arrived at the historical center of Paraty around 17:00 & caught a taxi across to Jabaquara, a beach on the other side of town where our new airBNB was situated. The taxi driver couldn’t find the place so I was grateful we hadn’t decided to walk across. ….Louise takes over blogpost from here –> NO I WAS GRATEFUL we didn´t have to walk… Nick loves the challenge so don´t believe him 😉

We were driving around in our taxi which seemed like in the middle of nowhere when a friendly looking face waved to us from his house – this was Alfredo our host. Phew thank goodness he spotted our taxi driving up and down the dirt road a few times! He welcomed us in and showed us around. This was our first air bnb and it was so homely. Clean, tidy and with everything we needed.

Paraty air BNB

Outside our accommodation

Air bnb´s are a great way to find out where the best local restaurants / pubs, attractions are. Alfredo and Gulia were incredible hosts, they told us what beaches to visit and Alfredo invited us to his carnival celebration in the town the following night.

We had our first experience of Caipirinha´s – this is Brazils National cocktail made with cachaca (Sugar cane hard liquor) – YUP that should explain it all!! This stuff is hardcore!! This first night we each had only one each and we started seeing strange things on the street! (See Nicks previous blog post – It´s dry but you can drink it)

The following day we caught a public bus to Trindade beach. We attempted a walk through the one island jungle but failed #lostagain, so we headed back and discovered there was literally a path which was about 30metres long right there taking us to the beach we wanted to go to. We relaxed, swam and enjoyed some local food which we got TOTALLY ripped off for. We both thought we were being so clever ordering from a little trailer on the beach, but little did we know no menu = they can charge whatever they feel like. And so we enjoyed a small plate of crumbed prawns and hake to share + 4 beers for just under R400 EISH!

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We then got to enjoy a local carnival / festival in the town, the locals dressed up and danced and played instruments all through the town. Alfredo our host was apart of the band playing the drums. It was such an awesome experience to be apart of where people would just join in and dance and sing. You could definitely see who the true Brazilians were the way they moved was quite something.

N & L

It’s dry… but you can drink it

Well that was an interesting evening out in Paraty… from the hobbling baby carrier to wheely’ing Brazilian to squeaky cycler to stray Dog / cat street party (don’t ask..), things got a little cray cray. Sure one could argue that the caipirinha’s had something to do with it… & they’d probably be right 🙂 #worldpeace
N

   
   

Sao Paulo

So after a 10 hour flight and a 30 minute taxi drive we arrived at our hostel, Che Legarto in the busy and bustling Sao Paulo city centre. Sao Paulo is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere… With 5644 skyscrapers, a population of 40 million people, 2,9 million dogs, 580 000 cats (I had to throw that in) 🙂 it is a pretty phenomenal place. You think JHB traffic is bad… you ain’t seen NOTHING! Some wealthy businessmen use helicopters to get one from end of the city to the next because it can take hours in traffic!

The language barrier was a slight struggle at times, not many people speak English, the language spoken is Portuguese. Our first night it took us about 45 minutes to try and figure out what was on the menu, all we knew (& could understand) was that the Piranha steak was not an option. Thankfully my clever husband had Google translate app on his phone, so we managed to order a chicken salad and some other random breakfast meal for dinner

We only spent 2 days in the city, but managed to explore the beautiful Ibirapuera Park – a MASSIVE park where tons of people go to work out, run, cycle, walk their dogs etc. The park has a handful of outdoor gyms, a planetarium, 2 beautiful ponds with swans and ducks and some exquisite trees. We had an expensive lunch at Unique Hotels Skybar which gave us some incredible views of the skyscrapers… I felt rather underdressed as most of the woman parading Louis Vuitton or other expensive name brand outfits.

The graffiti along the street walls was something we both really enjoyed! Sao Paolo has become an artistic and creative city welcoming the graffiti artists, the colours and designs were phenomenal!

All in all it has been a fun two days… minus the “slight detour” thanks to Nicks Garmin watch. (I am not allowed to say the L word!)

Out of the São Paulo & into the Paraty…

After a 15min walk, 21min metro & 6.5hr bus trip we have arrived in Paraty – a little colonial town where the electricity is iffy, the roads are not so roady & the water is luke warm. So kinda like Pinetown, but with more mosquitos. 

Authors Note. There appear to be many stray animals that require “TLC”. Lou is ecstatic. Tomorrow we explore 🙂

N