Pousada Naturalia Ilha Grande

Intrepid as ever, we decided to shun the idea of a taxi or organised way of crossing the Argentinian/Brazilian border and do it ourselves. Pretty sure that this would be straightforward, we trekked up to the bus station and were straight onto a bus to Foz de Iguaçu. After about twenty minutes we were called by the driver - ¨the English, the English!¨went his cry. He threw us off his bus equipped only with a scrap of paper that would apparently allow us onto the next bus after we had cleared c...

Some photos of Ilha Grande so far

The bus ride was alright...not the most comfortable and lots of stops. During the afternoon rainstorm we passed a fatal accident where we had an UP CLOSE view of the squashed car and its 2 passengers. Very humbling and scary. After a LONG (18 hour) bus ride we finally arrived at our hostel. We weren~t too sure at first, as the bus left us in a field of soy plants and told us to walk down the red dirt path. But we were warmly welcomed and very impressed with the Hostel Natura. Anwar and Tatina...

We left Rio on Sunday (27th May) for the port town of Angra dos Reis where we continued our journey by boat to the tropical island of Ilha Grande.   Ilha Grande is a stunning island. It was once a pirates lair, then a lepers colony and most recently until 1994 a prison for some of Brazil's most dangerous criminals!  The absence of mass tourism during all these years is  the reason for the island's intact preservation, making this place a true ecological paradise .   Sadly, its already gearing...

So yesterday we were up early to get the bus from Rio to Angar dos Reis and from there to catch the ferry to Ilha Grande. The bus journey was very interesting as it took us through some of the poorest parts of Rio, the slums or favelas, to past some of the more luxurious beach
front condos - amazing contrasts within an hour or so of each other. The bus journey was very smooth and comfortable (unlike the ones in Rio) - a 'semi leito' with reclining seat, foot rest, bags of leg room, so much...

Our relaxing island retreat has come to involve a lot of walking...
And it's fab.

Yesterday we hiked through the forest for two hours to reach an amazing waterfall. Luckily we encountered a guided walking group as we reached the falls so they could show us the safe way to climb the falls and to swim under the main stream- amazing. Also lucky was the
fact that one of the group took photos and promises to email them to us as we'd not taken a camera. Being under the falls was brilli...

Ilha grande just gets better and better. Granted, the weather turning to 'dead hot and nice all the time' probably helped but it is truly a beautiful island.

We've spent a satisfyingly large amout of time lying around reading books- with caipirinhas and beer where appropriate (quite a lot). There are hidden beaches to be found at either end of the main town- they take about a 20 min walk through the jungle (sorry John) but it's SO worth it for the peace and beauty of them.

Perh...