Ilha Grande

After 3 hours on a minibus followed by 30 mins on a boat, we have landed in Ilha Grande. It looks a bit like Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs (think about he scene where they approach the island for the first time with the John Williams score).

We are staying in the Biergarten Hostel which is really nice. The staff are friendly, it's nice and clean and in general has a much better vibe than the last hostel so we feel much more at home here.

We arrived on the island late afternoon so didn't do much yesterday.

Today we went on a 7km hike across the island through the jungle to Lopes Mendes beach. It took us around 3 hours (it was really steep and very muggy) but was very enjoyable (even Simon enjoyed it 😂). And the beach at the end was totally worth it! We have never been on a beach like it. It felt a bit like when Leonardo di Caprio finally discovered the beach!

After an hour of sunbathing and a brief dip in the sea we opted to get the boat back to have some dinner. Dinner today was a very delicious home cooked meal of rice, carrot, onion and courgette (at least that's what we think it was) in a tomato sauce! Poor Simon misses meat!Read more