Rio de Janeiro & Ilha Grande

(20 – 23 Feb)

For the first part of our stay in Brazil we were heading to Ilha Grande, an island about 3 hours south of Rio. Our flight into Rio only landed at around 10:30pm, so we checked into a hotel in the cool Santa Teresa area, and arranged a shuttle service to get to Ilha Grande the next day.

We had a few challenges arranging an Uber to take us to the hotel – at least in Brazil they actively advertise Uber (with massive billboards on display), unlike Santiago where it feels a bit dodgy as it’s not quite 100% legalized yet.

Eventually we found Mama Shelter and checked in for the night. As is suitable for a building in the Santa Teresa area, the hotel is in a really cool, old building that has been restored. So the room has high ceilings and is unusually large for this type of hotel. The interior design is fun and colourful and the bed was very comfortable.

After breakfast we sorted out a sim card and then waited for the bus to arrive.

Our shuttle service included the bus and boat all the way to Vila do Abraao (the main village on Ilha Grande), which was very convenient.

We had to collect a few people along the way so the drive took about 3 hours but fortunately the boat ride was only 15min.

Excitement built on the boat ride as we got closer to the island – Ilha grande is beautiful. Lush green forests and matching emerald water, just what we needed to round off such an amazing holiday.

The island is very hilly, so the different ‘villages’ are very small and there are no cars and no roads linking the villages. The only ways to move between villages is to hike through the forest or to take a boat taxi around the island. It felt like paradise.

We booked an AirBnB for the two nights, it looked quite rustic but we thought that would add to the charm of staying on a tropical, car free island. Turns out that it was near the back end of the village and up quite a steep hill. We were already questioning this decision on the walk with all our bags in the warm, humid conditions.

But, there’s not much that cannot be fixed with a caipirinha, so we dropped off our bags, put on our swimsuits and headed straight to the beach!

Our host recommended a restaurant on the waters edge where you can pull up a chair order drinks and swim in between if you wish. We enjoyed a much needed dip in the ocean and had a delicious octopus risotto for late lunch/dinner. This is the life! We had only arrived and we were already wishing we could stay longer!

After our meal and a few drinks, we moved on to the neighboring restaurant/bar (50m down the beach) and enjoyed a few more caipirinhas there…

Needless to say, we woke up a bit later than intended the next morning!

We only had one full day on the island so we went to find out what sort of tours we could do.

Unfortunately the late start meant that we’d missed all the organized, full day tours that do stops at some of the lagoons and neighboring islands. Luckily there was one beach that we could visit, which is also a popular day trip – Praia de Lópes Mendes. And it was leaving only a few minutes after booking.

So we hopped on the boat taxi and headed off. Slowly. This boat took about an hour to get to the drop off point and then it was a further 25min walk to the beach.

We started with a much needed snack before heading off on our walk. We ordered something off the advertising board outside the little beach Cafe, not knowing what it actually was. Luckily it turned out to be a tasty fried fish dish.

While waiting for our order we started chatting to a German couple. They were also heading to the same beach so we decided to go to the beaches together.

There is also another smaller beach, called Santo Antonio, which splits off from the main path. We started the walk and soon realized that it was more of a hike, up a pretty steep mud path.

Eventually we got to the point where the path splits and we chose to visit Santo Antonio first.

It seems like its the lesser visited beach, judging from the overgrown path along the way. When we arrived at the beach, there were only two other people there, bliss! We headed straight into the water and the temperature was divine!

After chilling out a bit we decided it was time for the other beach. It seemed a waste of time to hike all the way back up and then down while the beach was just around the corner, over a few rocks.

So we took the road less traveled and started climbing over the rocks, only to discover a sheer rock face about half way there and no way to get passed it without swimming the rest of the way. This meant going back the way we came…

Fortunately, Lopes Mendes is a beautiful beach with even better swimming conditions so the hot, humid walk and sweating was worth it.

We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with our new friends before going back to Vila do Abraao.

The octopus risotto was too good to pass up for our last meal on the island, although the number of caipirinhas consumed dropped significantly this time. Lesson learnt!

We hiked back up the hill to our cottage and no sooner had we closed the door when the rain started bucketing down! How lucky that we just missed it! It seems that with rain on the island comes power outages, so no fan for the night… It was a warm night.

The next morning we packed up and left our luggage with the shuttle operator while we enjoyed our last few hours on the beach.

With so much more to see and do, we definitely want to go back one day! But our final destination was waiting for us to do our last bit of exploring before heading back to the real world.

We got on the speedboat and headed back to Rio.