Ilha Grande was two bus rides and a boat trip away from Trindade and it took us most of the day to get there but it was a lovely trip on a windy road that followed the coast most of the way. The only thing that really marred the beauty was a nuclear power plant. We passed through the compound for the power plant workers and it was a bit like military barracks – not the prettiest places at the best of times but the power plant, some way up the coast, looked even more out of place against the back drop of forest with the sea in front. It seemed a crazy place to build a nuclear plant as it’s so close to cities and is built on a fault line to boot! Apparently the safety of the plant has already been questioned.
There is an official ferry but boats like the below go all the time from Angra and we got on one of these for a fraction more than the ferry.
Our boat was crowded with tourists and locals who had clearly been doing their shopping on the mainland. Ilha Grande is hardly isolated – it’s only about 30 minutes boat ride offshore but Vila do Abraão, the main port, is along the island a lot further so all in all, the trip was about 70 minutes.
View Ihla Grande in a larger map
We passed numerous islands, some inhabited (such as this one),
and along the shoreline were lovely homes built on land cleared of jungle.
We’d not eaten that day and before we left Uruguay I’d bought a 500g tub of my favourite brand of dulce de leche, intending to take it back to England. It never made it and I finished it off on the boat to Ilha Grande, using savoury bread-stick things as a spoon. I was nearly at the bottom of the tub… and I’m pretty glad I didn’t go for the 1kg option!
This was the first view we had of Vila do Abraão, a small colonial port with a backdrop of impressive jungle-covered mountains. On the top right there is a rock that looks like a parrots beak, some 980m high and I was gunning to climb it but it never really came out of the cloud in the time we were there so we stayed at sea level.
The posada we stayed at was lovely with a pretty garden that attracted all sorts of birds (and us with our caipirinhas!). A bottle of cachaça has been a permanent part of our luggage for the last wee while. In fact, I think I have cachaça poisoning but with a bottle costing little over £1.50 and an abundance of limes in this country it seems rude not to drink it!
Food was more expensive here than in Trindade but you could still get the standard prato feito of rice, beans, salad, meat and farofa (toasted, dried manioc flour mixed with bits of bacon and onion). These set you up for the day and are really good value. Fruit is incredibly cheap and we’ve made the most of the fresh mangoes, papayas, melons and pineapples. The weather was variable for the entire time we were on the island and most of the time it looked like this down one end of the beach
but like this down the other end.
The only vehicles allowed on the island are those that belong to the national park and beaches on the island are either accessed by boat or by hiking. Most people opt for the boat service that drops you off on a beach in the morning and returns in the afternoon but we decided we’d been inactive for a bit too long and hiked off to what has been (in 2005) voted one of the top ten beaches in the world. We thought some of the beaches we passed by were pretty idyllic; this was one of about three
but to be honest, they were all fairly similar.
It was about 6km through bush tracks to get to Lopes Mendes but when we got there we couldn’t help but think that some of the other beaches we’d passed by were nicer and felt we’d definitely seen better beaches. We weren’t alone in this opinion but admittedly the day wasn’t the best and it was quite windy, but still…. you decide.
To cap it off, it tipped it down about 10 minutes after we arrived so we headed back to one of the nicer sheltered beaches and spent time there instead before making our way back to Abraão.
There were a few beaches around Abraão and the day we went looking for a patch of sand it was high tide so the beaches were about 1/5 of the size they were the day before. In some bays, there was no beach and the waves were lapping the jungle edge.
Of course everyone in the area was on the hunt for a spot of sand and most people just ended up in the water or sitting on the waters edge, like at this bar. The day before there had been a good 5-6 meters of sandy beach here.
We decided to camp here for a while and it was rather pleasant to sit in the sun with the waves lapping over our feet but my chair was sinking lower and lower with each wave.
This guy looked classic. He came in off a boat moored in the bay in this boat with his little dog and was heading back
but forgot his hat and glasses so had to come back in and get them
This cat belonged to the bar and was hanging around this couple that had ordered some fish.
He would walk over when the sand was only damp and wait but would invariably get caught out by a wave that gently rolled in
and once he got away with a big leap.
The second time he got caught big time by a bigger, faster wave and had nowhere else to go but right up onto the table, onto the fish. The couple were quite good about having a cat in their food (and someone laughing their head off at an adjacent table while taking photos!).
This was the first day of Easter (Thursday and Friday are public holidays here in Brazil) and as we went to leave all thoughts of staying left our heads when we saw the hoards of people arriving by boat. Boat after boat arrived absolutely packed with people arriving for the Easter break.
It was an absolutely stunning day too but with that many people the island it would be almost unbearable.
As an aside, Euans laptop has died. It started playing up in Florianópolis but after Euan gave it a good shake (in a fit of uncharacteristic anger), it suddenly came back to life. It was short lived however and we think it really has gone kaput. Very frustrating and while it is good for us to see how spoilt we have been, writing the blog has been a little bit more of a challenge of late!
There is an official ferry but boats like the below go all the time from Angra and we got on one of these for a fraction more than the ferry.
Our boat was crowded with tourists and locals who had clearly been doing their shopping on the mainland. Ilha Grande is hardly isolated – it’s only about 30 minutes boat ride offshore but Vila do Abraão, the main port, is along the island a lot further so all in all, the trip was about 70 minutes.
View Ihla Grande in a larger map
We passed numerous islands, some inhabited (such as this one),
and along the shoreline were lovely homes built on land cleared of jungle.
We’d not eaten that day and before we left Uruguay I’d bought a 500g tub of my favourite brand of dulce de leche, intending to take it back to England. It never made it and I finished it off on the boat to Ilha Grande, using savoury bread-stick things as a spoon. I was nearly at the bottom of the tub… and I’m pretty glad I didn’t go for the 1kg option!
This was the first view we had of Vila do Abraão, a small colonial port with a backdrop of impressive jungle-covered mountains. On the top right there is a rock that looks like a parrots beak, some 980m high and I was gunning to climb it but it never really came out of the cloud in the time we were there so we stayed at sea level.
The posada we stayed at was lovely with a pretty garden that attracted all sorts of birds (and us with our caipirinhas!). A bottle of cachaça has been a permanent part of our luggage for the last wee while. In fact, I think I have cachaça poisoning but with a bottle costing little over £1.50 and an abundance of limes in this country it seems rude not to drink it!
Food was more expensive here than in Trindade but you could still get the standard prato feito of rice, beans, salad, meat and farofa (toasted, dried manioc flour mixed with bits of bacon and onion). These set you up for the day and are really good value. Fruit is incredibly cheap and we’ve made the most of the fresh mangoes, papayas, melons and pineapples. The weather was variable for the entire time we were on the island and most of the time it looked like this down one end of the beach
but like this down the other end.
The only vehicles allowed on the island are those that belong to the national park and beaches on the island are either accessed by boat or by hiking. Most people opt for the boat service that drops you off on a beach in the morning and returns in the afternoon but we decided we’d been inactive for a bit too long and hiked off to what has been (in 2005) voted one of the top ten beaches in the world. We thought some of the beaches we passed by were pretty idyllic; this was one of about three
but to be honest, they were all fairly similar.
It was about 6km through bush tracks to get to Lopes Mendes but when we got there we couldn’t help but think that some of the other beaches we’d passed by were nicer and felt we’d definitely seen better beaches. We weren’t alone in this opinion but admittedly the day wasn’t the best and it was quite windy, but still…. you decide.
To cap it off, it tipped it down about 10 minutes after we arrived so we headed back to one of the nicer sheltered beaches and spent time there instead before making our way back to Abraão.
There were a few beaches around Abraão and the day we went looking for a patch of sand it was high tide so the beaches were about 1/5 of the size they were the day before. In some bays, there was no beach and the waves were lapping the jungle edge.
Of course everyone in the area was on the hunt for a spot of sand and most people just ended up in the water or sitting on the waters edge, like at this bar. The day before there had been a good 5-6 meters of sandy beach here.
We decided to camp here for a while and it was rather pleasant to sit in the sun with the waves lapping over our feet but my chair was sinking lower and lower with each wave.
This guy looked classic. He came in off a boat moored in the bay in this boat with his little dog and was heading back
but forgot his hat and glasses so had to come back in and get them
This cat belonged to the bar and was hanging around this couple that had ordered some fish.
He would walk over when the sand was only damp and wait but would invariably get caught out by a wave that gently rolled in
and once he got away with a big leap.
The second time he got caught big time by a bigger, faster wave and had nowhere else to go but right up onto the table, onto the fish. The couple were quite good about having a cat in their food (and someone laughing their head off at an adjacent table while taking photos!).
This was the first day of Easter (Thursday and Friday are public holidays here in Brazil) and as we went to leave all thoughts of staying left our heads when we saw the hoards of people arriving by boat. Boat after boat arrived absolutely packed with people arriving for the Easter break.
It was an absolutely stunning day too but with that many people the island it would be almost unbearable.
As an aside, Euans laptop has died. It started playing up in Florianópolis but after Euan gave it a good shake (in a fit of uncharacteristic anger), it suddenly came back to life. It was short lived however and we think it really has gone kaput. Very frustrating and while it is good for us to see how spoilt we have been, writing the blog has been a little bit more of a challenge of late!
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