We spent another day cooking on our new found favorite beach in Buzios. We are both now different but distinct shades of very painful red. Needless to say that carrying gigantic backpacks on burnt shoulders is less than comfortable. We were wincing in agony with every step but we cleverly played slap for slap on burnt skin to numb our pain receptors and it seems to have worked. On our last night in Buzios we changed hostels and I stayed awake all night fighting mosquitos. They did not seem so interested in Tyson though, so he slept just fine and then questioned whether there was really mosquitos or I imagined the whole thing. I'm not so sure at this point. We watched some of the enticing "Keeping up with the Kardashians" on TV (because it was the only show in English) before bed. The next day after breakfast we went to Centro, bought Acai smoothies to drink and took out yet another chunk of moolah from the HSBC ATM which seem to be conveniently located everywhere we have gone so far.
We had carefully planned out the next leg of our trip which was to take us to Ilha Grande. As we are known to do, we took that last possible bus back to Rio where we were meant to catch another bus to Mangaratiba. Of course the bus was sold out and that lead us to the impossible decision of staying in Rio, risking a later bus, or paying double the price for a different route. We decided on each option at one point in the conversation but settled on risking missing the ferry and taking a later bus. We bought tickets for the later bus from very helpful sales staff but still showed up for the earlier one in hopes of tricking someone into letting us on. It's also important to add that even taking this earlier bus (only 20 minutes earlier) did not guarantee we could get onto the ferry. The ferry we wanted usually leaves Magaratiba daily at 10am only, but on Fridays there is an extra ferry added at 10pm. This is the ferry we wanted, and we had already invested in a room at a hostel on the other side. So at the bus stop we asked a few people to help us out and they all worked together to kindly discover two available seats! I have no clue how they did it but we were completely grateful. We spent that three hour bus ride hoping and praying that we would made the ferry at 10pm.
We did in fact make the ferry, and what a ferry it was! About 200 seats mushed together in a flat floaty thing that swayed from side to side and every time we hit a wave we felt like we'd been shot in the gut. I don't remember the last time I vomitted in my life but I have never had motion sickness. I read, write and sleep in cars and on boats without a problem but I was overcome with nausea and actually vomitted into a plastic bag. Tyson was white as a ghost but somehow still managed to fall asleep. An estimated 90% of the passengers were leaning over the rails and off the boat with sickness when we finally reached our destination after 90 minutes, the way everyone rushed off the boat you'd think they were giving away free lollipops outside. We reached Ilha Grande at about 11:35 and had thankfully booked our first night at a hostel. A random friendly man that we kept running into directed us to the place "weeth a right and a right and left and you there!!" he kept shouting in his raspy voice. We were amused, grateful and a bit unnerved by him. Alas we reached our lovely hostel around 12:30 am after a long day of travelling from Buzios. Everyone told us it couldn't be done in a day but here we were. I guess techinically you could say it was the next day since it was after midnight but let's not get into technicalities on vacation.
Ilha Grande is where the pirates used to hide out many years ago and attack the European ships that came accrosss the ocean. When pirates stopped being real and became halloween costumes, they built a big hospital here, somehow the hospital turned into a prison for bad guys. When the prison shut down some years ago, it became one of Brazil's top tourist attractions. It is filled with lush green jungle (hence how the pirates hid here) and has beautiful beaches. So we started our first day with fresh fruit and 2 doughnuts each and set out to explore our Island.
Ilha Grande is a large Island with mountains riddled with rainforest, hiking trails, beaches, lagoons, waterfalls and coves. There are no paved streets and no cars. The only access is by boat. Our first day of exploring took us through the central "downtown area" to an active aquaduct that carries water to Abraao villiage. We hiked 5-6 hours and saw a magical waterfall in the middle of the jungle. We also saw some old ruins, beautiful beaches and fauna and flora native to the tropical rainforests of Brazil. We managed to ruin dinner by overcooking the pasta in addition to having an unwelcome guest pay us a visit. we were sitting at a small bistro-like table under lush tropical trees. The perfect setting for a romantic dinner. Within 10 minutes with a wide-eyed look on his face, Tyson whispered "what's on my back? I think something just fell on my back." I took one look at the largest ccockroach I have ever seen in my whole entire life clinging on to Tyson's shirt. I screamed bloody murder and ran into the hostel as fast as humanly possible abandoning Tyson to fight the battle of his life alone. As I peeked around the corner I saw the palm-sized monster crawl up onto his shoulder inches from his face and I curled into a ball to cry. Until this moment we now have to do 18 "cockroach checks" of every place we go and everything I have to touch. It was a horrendous and traumatizing experince. We made up for it by eating the most expensive ice cream I have ever dared to purchase. I would recommend you not buy ice cream by weight. As we were sitting by the beautiful beach on a bench eating our over-priced scoop of ice cream a man next to us cried out in a foreign language and swiped a cockroach off his back. I died.
The next day we again hiked for nearly 6-7 hours to what the Lonely Planet calls "the most beautiful beach on earth." It goes by the name Lopex Mendez and if you make it there alive after the steep and arduous hike, you can enjoy the crashing waves, surfers, silky white sand and sky blue waters. We spent some time tanning, sleeping, swimming, reading and snapping photos and trekked all the way home. On the trek home, three dogs (we named them Lopez, Mendez and Balls) followed us the whole way. The waited for us when we stopped and ran with us when we sped up. It was the cutest thing and we have to bring them home. There are so many sweet dogs here that are stray and while I used to feel sorry for them, I think that they are happy. There are many dogs with owners here too. We had salad for the first time since we left home in Ilha Grande, we are very proud of that. They have live music at night here so we walked around, found dessert and listened to the blues and samba music. While our time here was short, it was well worth the effort to see this lovely place. On our last day at the hostel we met another Canadian couple! These were the first Canadians we had seen (from Edmonton) our whole trip so it was quite exciting.
Next we took the same dreadful ferry (that did not seem to bad this time) and another two hour bus ride to another city named Paraty. Once there, we got recruited to stay at a hotel near the city. We just got here and it seems ok. After a large load of laundry (by hand) and a bit of organization we are off to find the sights of this new place.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
We had carefully planned out the next leg of our trip which was to take us to Ilha Grande. As we are known to do, we took that last possible bus back to Rio where we were meant to catch another bus to Mangaratiba. Of course the bus was sold out and that lead us to the impossible decision of staying in Rio, risking a later bus, or paying double the price for a different route. We decided on each option at one point in the conversation but settled on risking missing the ferry and taking a later bus. We bought tickets for the later bus from very helpful sales staff but still showed up for the earlier one in hopes of tricking someone into letting us on. It's also important to add that even taking this earlier bus (only 20 minutes earlier) did not guarantee we could get onto the ferry. The ferry we wanted usually leaves Magaratiba daily at 10am only, but on Fridays there is an extra ferry added at 10pm. This is the ferry we wanted, and we had already invested in a room at a hostel on the other side. So at the bus stop we asked a few people to help us out and they all worked together to kindly discover two available seats! I have no clue how they did it but we were completely grateful. We spent that three hour bus ride hoping and praying that we would made the ferry at 10pm.
We did in fact make the ferry, and what a ferry it was! About 200 seats mushed together in a flat floaty thing that swayed from side to side and every time we hit a wave we felt like we'd been shot in the gut. I don't remember the last time I vomitted in my life but I have never had motion sickness. I read, write and sleep in cars and on boats without a problem but I was overcome with nausea and actually vomitted into a plastic bag. Tyson was white as a ghost but somehow still managed to fall asleep. An estimated 90% of the passengers were leaning over the rails and off the boat with sickness when we finally reached our destination after 90 minutes, the way everyone rushed off the boat you'd think they were giving away free lollipops outside. We reached Ilha Grande at about 11:35 and had thankfully booked our first night at a hostel. A random friendly man that we kept running into directed us to the place "weeth a right and a right and left and you there!!" he kept shouting in his raspy voice. We were amused, grateful and a bit unnerved by him. Alas we reached our lovely hostel around 12:30 am after a long day of travelling from Buzios. Everyone told us it couldn't be done in a day but here we were. I guess techinically you could say it was the next day since it was after midnight but let's not get into technicalities on vacation.
Ilha Grande is where the pirates used to hide out many years ago and attack the European ships that came accrosss the ocean. When pirates stopped being real and became halloween costumes, they built a big hospital here, somehow the hospital turned into a prison for bad guys. When the prison shut down some years ago, it became one of Brazil's top tourist attractions. It is filled with lush green jungle (hence how the pirates hid here) and has beautiful beaches. So we started our first day with fresh fruit and 2 doughnuts each and set out to explore our Island.
Ilha Grande is a large Island with mountains riddled with rainforest, hiking trails, beaches, lagoons, waterfalls and coves. There are no paved streets and no cars. The only access is by boat. Our first day of exploring took us through the central "downtown area" to an active aquaduct that carries water to Abraao villiage. We hiked 5-6 hours and saw a magical waterfall in the middle of the jungle. We also saw some old ruins, beautiful beaches and fauna and flora native to the tropical rainforests of Brazil. We managed to ruin dinner by overcooking the pasta in addition to having an unwelcome guest pay us a visit. we were sitting at a small bistro-like table under lush tropical trees. The perfect setting for a romantic dinner. Within 10 minutes with a wide-eyed look on his face, Tyson whispered "what's on my back? I think something just fell on my back." I took one look at the largest ccockroach I have ever seen in my whole entire life clinging on to Tyson's shirt. I screamed bloody murder and ran into the hostel as fast as humanly possible abandoning Tyson to fight the battle of his life alone. As I peeked around the corner I saw the palm-sized monster crawl up onto his shoulder inches from his face and I curled into a ball to cry. Until this moment we now have to do 18 "cockroach checks" of every place we go and everything I have to touch. It was a horrendous and traumatizing experince. We made up for it by eating the most expensive ice cream I have ever dared to purchase. I would recommend you not buy ice cream by weight. As we were sitting by the beautiful beach on a bench eating our over-priced scoop of ice cream a man next to us cried out in a foreign language and swiped a cockroach off his back. I died.
The next day we again hiked for nearly 6-7 hours to what the Lonely Planet calls "the most beautiful beach on earth." It goes by the name Lopex Mendez and if you make it there alive after the steep and arduous hike, you can enjoy the crashing waves, surfers, silky white sand and sky blue waters. We spent some time tanning, sleeping, swimming, reading and snapping photos and trekked all the way home. On the trek home, three dogs (we named them Lopez, Mendez and Balls) followed us the whole way. The waited for us when we stopped and ran with us when we sped up. It was the cutest thing and we have to bring them home. There are so many sweet dogs here that are stray and while I used to feel sorry for them, I think that they are happy. There are many dogs with owners here too. We had salad for the first time since we left home in Ilha Grande, we are very proud of that. They have live music at night here so we walked around, found dessert and listened to the blues and samba music. While our time here was short, it was well worth the effort to see this lovely place. On our last day at the hostel we met another Canadian couple! These were the first Canadians we had seen (from Edmonton) our whole trip so it was quite exciting.
Next we took the same dreadful ferry (that did not seem to bad this time) and another two hour bus ride to another city named Paraty. Once there, we got recruited to stay at a hotel near the city. We just got here and it seems ok. After a large load of laundry (by hand) and a bit of organization we are off to find the sights of this new place.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
Love this post Audrey!! I'm guessing that Balls was a male dog? hehehe
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