Ilha Grande, despite the grandiose name is actually the smaller of Brazil’s islands, yet makes up for the size shortcomings with beauty and bemusement enough to attract ocean liners and hold us for three nights.
For our first adventure, we walked to the old ruins of a prison that while it is located in paradise, looks like it would have been a hellhole. Especially when you consider the gorgeous view outside the window that’s covered in bars. We continued to a beach to sunbathe and kick our Paraguay-makes-them-better-ball around. Tomás and some locals succeeded in making Simon feel out of his depth on a sporting field for the first time ever. We progressed to rally volleyball style in the water as a group and showed just how hard that can be when waist deep in water.
Our challenge the following day included hiking up hill and down dale between beaches, making our way to Lopes Mendes beach, a brilliant expanse of white sand framed with lush forest and giant boulders, blending out to crystal aqua water with tumbling white waves. Hiking is always harder in humidity and heat, and it took all of my 2ltrs of water to make it the whole way. Then there’s the masses of tree roots, boulders, day-glo yellow caterpillars and tiny tamarin monkeys to scramble over and photograph along the track. Views from the summits extended in all directions and the cruise liner in port got smaller and smaller.
Setting up camp on Lopes Mendes, Hayden hired a surf board and we took several photos of people very nearly not really surfing. The water was amazingly refreshing and the signs that told us there were dangerous, strong currents and no swimming were summarily ignored. Ignorance has its upside – the buff lifeguards in speedos would come and wave us away from the really really dangerous parts near rocks into the just dangerous current areas…they knew they were fighting a losing battle to keep anyone completely out of the water.
We backtracked to the second beach to catch the ferry back to town. After dinner the party got started in one of the rooms in preparation for a party at a backpackers along up the beach. I didn’t go, preferring to get to bed as early as 2am for a change and judging by the state of some of the others the next morning, I still don’t regret it 😉
You see, I didn’t want to be hungover sick inside my astro walk helmet! Ilha Dive took a handful of us to Lagoa Azul, the Blue Lagoon, (sorry, no beautiful, young Brooke Shields lookalikes to be seen), to swim and astro walk with hundreds of colourful tropical fish that hang around for the pellets tossed from the boats. Astro walking is basically a weighted helmet with a giant glass bubble and you feel like an idiot trying to walk on the bottom of the lagoon. It’s probably as close to the imagined feeling of being an astronaut as most of us will get so I highly recommend it 😉
I tried moonwalking and tripped over a rock…thankfully, down below 3 metres of water it all happened in slow motion. The other goofy things our crew did were trying to catch fish…it’s the classic “things in the glass are not as close as they appear”, the boys got nude and I did Tomás’s famous samba jig…again all in slow motion. The photos are all on the Ilha Dive Facebook page and ours will be coming later to my Facebook page…well, except the nude ones 😉 Some things just need to stay on tour haha
A leisurely cruise back to port that I could handle every day. There is just something wonderful about being on the water, gliding over the gentle waves, taking the smooth corners and having something to look at without windows and with the wind and smells of the air all around you. I definitely want to retire onto a yacht…or buy up a deluxe cabin on a cruise liner to I’ve out my days, I couldn’t sit still forever.
The nights activities included a few warm up drinks, an attempt at joining another G group for a BBQ, a trip to a hostel bar and then returning for the after party back home. Now somewhere in there, another guide got a nickname, we played caipirinha boat races and picked up some stragglers from the BBQ, drank the hostel bar dry and then kept the hostel staff enthralled until 5/6am with samba dancing, keeping the fawning local boys away and Tomás and Simon kissed. Simon wanted tongue but Tomás wasn’t having it…still we do have video proof that it was a sensational night out, we laughed a whole helluva lot and we all know how to “Tomásamba”. And I’m not saying anymore than that 😉
Sore heads and puffy eyes boarded the ferry to the mainland to continue our charge to Rio the next mornings our final bus ride and chance to play “whose triangle”. Prior to arriving into Rio de Janeiro, I was actually anxious. It’s a city I’ve always wanted to visit, it’s charm and vitality cannot be denied and it’s scale is breathtaking. It’s doesn’t do anything by halves. Passing through so many small regional places along the way I have grown to prefer the intimacy of community and easy pace of life. I felt like a child moving from primary to high school and not having Tomás there to babysit us.
Arriving into Rio, seeing the mountains tower over the extended skyline, the casual appearance of the locals and Christ the Redeemer perched above it all like the angel on a Christmas tree, I relaxed…what’s the worst that could happen? After all, I can now sing the line for real…”I’ve been to cities that never close down. From New York to RIO and old London Town…”