We love Ihla Grande
Trip Start
Feb 23, 2008
1
26
43
Trip End
Jul 04, 2008
Ihla Grande,
Brazil
Friday, May 9, 2008
We stayed in the town of Abraao-this is where most people stay because it is where the ferry drops you off. We stayed in a great hostel, besides being a little noisy the first couple nights. The people that work there are super friendly and they clean your room everyday. The room includes bathroom, TV, and a mini fridge (which we love having!!). It also includes a great breakfast with a variety of fruits, homemade baked goods, fresh juices. Plus plates of ham and cheese which we used to make sandwiches for lunch on our hikes.
First day there it rained most of the day
Monkeys on the hike to Lopez Mendez beach
. After that we ran half of the path (the up hill part) to Dios Rios beach. We feel sort of in shape at this point from a lot of running in Rio. But that will soon go downhill with a lot of drinking and eating to come! Second day it was sunny outside so we hiked 2 1/2 hours to Lopez Mendez beach. We had this cute, little black dog following us for the first part of the hike. We thought it was funny so we started louring him with pieces of ham. But eventually he got tired of us and headed back. Lopez Mendez is a huge beach surrounded by forest. It is a little more crowded here because you can also take a ferry here. We ended up having to take the ferry home because it started raining. We ate rice, beans, chicken and fish for dinner. The food on the island is excellent. We end up eating this every night. We canīt get enough even with the comically huge portions they serve!
This night we also indulged in 3 caprininas with dinner. They are very good in Brazil but strong! We went back to the hostel and ended up playing cards with 2 German sisters with very dry sense of humors and a sensitive guitar playing English guy. We hung out past 4am joking around and drinking beers. The next morning we both had the worst hangover in years. We woke up and it was bright and sunny outside but we couldnīt drag ourselves out of bed until past one in the afternoon. We went to try and eat something but we couldnīt even do that. We were in bad shape. Thankfully we were hungover together-otherwise the other might have been mad for wasting the nice day. All we did was lay in bed and watch Rocky movies!
The last day on the island we were rested and ready to go. We ran the 5km (2 1/2 uphill) path to Dios Rios beach and it was well worth it. There is no boat that goes to this beach so it was us and 3 other people. It was like a private paradise. After lounging around all day we somehow found energy to run back home. We were tired the next day! And what a long day it was. . .
