Saturday 9 May 2009

Ilha Grande



Literally meaning 'big island', Ilha Grande is an island off the Brazilian Costa Verde coast, 150km south of Rio. It's covered in lush, green jungle and boasts some of the best beaches in the country. Like Papillon, the island has had its own (helicopter) jail brake back in 1994. This resulted in the closure of the penal colony.



Our favourite beach was Lopez Mendez, a long and thin stretch of white squeaky sand with emerald sea. It was awesome to watch the locals surfing on the bone-crushing waves (at least that's what they looked like to us). To get to the beach from the island's main village, we walked through the jungle and smaller beaches for 2.5 hours and then caught the boat back. We had lots of fun playing in the crystal clear water (and not getting sucked away by the rip tide).



We had a lovely beach view from our window. One night a storm rolled in from the mainland. We saw giant flashes of lighting in the dark, followed by heavy rain all night. Some evenings we had candle-lit dinner on the beach and others in the village. One of the most memorable meals was a shark kebab marinated in garlic butter – a departure from the usual salt only food! The least memorable meal, a pasta carbonara, was so inedible that we gave it to the stray dogs wondering on the beach.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hyvää myöhästynyttä synttäriä Jenni!! kuullaan viikon päästä kun olette taas Euroopassa.
haleja
Sanni :)

Anonymous said...

Looks lovely. Make the most of your last few days!

Love Dad & Mum xx

Anonymous said...

We can't believe that your "trip around the world" is almost over..time flies???Looking forward to see you soon!When are you coming to Finland?

Hugs, Maija&Matti