South America - Week 2
Brazil - Ilha Grande/Paraty
10.13.2010 - 10.23.2010
26 °C
Ilha Grande is a tropical island about 2/3 hours South of Rio de Janeiro. We had booked 4 nights in a Hostel and wondered on the first day whether this would be a good idea given the poor weather upon arrival and the very loud reggae party just next to our 4 bed dorm. We later found out that only a handful of people were still out until the early hours of the day and that no one could sleep that night. The next 3 days were almost perfect with several hikes through the jungle and up some steep mountains, sleeping on the beach in some really beautiful coves, ... The landscape looked like the one from the Island in the series Lost but luckily, we managed to leave the Island without any problem (or at least, without much problem as you'll be told later).
The hike up the Parrot's peak in particular was quite fun. We set up at 10 in the morning with our new french friend Cédric from the island of "La Réunion" ( our next holiday destination?) and - despite the warnings from all local agencies - we didn't hire a guide. We made it to the top and back in about 3 hours without much difficulties i.e in 3 to 4 hours less than what was indicated by the signs and local guides. We were glad not to pay for that!
On Saturday evening, the day before leaving the island, we bought tickets for the fast boat to Angra dos Reis at 9am where we wanted to get on a bus to the old colonial town of Paraty further South on the coast. Come Sunday morning, we leave our hostel at 8.30 to make it to the pier at about 8.50 where the guys tell us that the boat had already left. We try to make ourselves understood (not that easy in Portuguese) by showing our watches to the guys who do the same to reply to us and we realise that we are not on the same time anymore. We only later found out that Brazil changed to summer time overnight but there was no one to tell us that. Nice !! We had to buy 2 other tickets for the next slow boat. I (Franck) was upset all day because of that! We finally made it to Paraty where we wandered the nice paved streets with colourful colonial houses.
We stayed there for two days but were a bit frustrated by the wheather and the heavy rain on the second day. We did meet by chance our Canadian friend Christian and German friend Lena who we had met previously on Ilha Grande and spend some time with them cooking food in our hostel and playing cards waiting for the rain to end and waiting for our bus back to Rio where we are back again.
We are now preparing for our next trip, a 22 hours bus journey from Rio to the city of Campo Grande, the gateway to excursions into the Pantanal, the biggest wetland area in the world with its share of fauna and wildlife....
Posted by lebrunfo 10.21.2010 14:02 Archived in Brazil
