Ilha Grande

After a very sad goodbye to our wonderful hosts in Paraty we hopped on a bus to Angra Dos Reis where we caught a ferry to Ilha Grande, which from the name you may have been able to figure out it is a large island (Brazil's third largest in fact). However, as large as it is, we only read as the ferry was leaving the port that there were no banks on the island, so our stay was limited! I had enough cash on me to spot Mitch some and we made the best of our time for sure. The city we stayed at on Ilha Grande was called Abaraos and was quite compact. We would notice the same people over and over and even ran into some of our friends from the hostel in Paraty! Great times! We camped in what felt like a very shady camp ground with a grumpy and abbraisive owner, but the price was right. I didnt feel particularly safe there as there were not very many other campers, but the owner later warmed up to us and all was well.
Just our luck, we arrived just in time for the Islands celebration of Saint Sebastian, so during our stay there were plenty of fireworks and people celebrating. Early on Tuesday morning (6am), we even got up and caught a glimpse of the parade around the city, which is all of 3 streets. The island held a plethora of exciting things to see and we wasted no time before heading off on an epic hike. Apparently walking through the jungle in your flip flops and speedo was not out of place so we quickly followed suit...and then the first burns ensued! Nothing a little alovera couldnt handle though. At the end of our two hour hike we came across a beautiful waterfall and has the whole thing to ourselves. We were able to stand underneath the falling water of what we had only seen in post cards before. Amazing! Lucky for us too we left just as about thirty more people we making their way to the falls. We head back for a huge lunch which included my first beans (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) and then headed to the tent for a ciesta. Later on the beach we were told by an english woman that we could not leave the island without seeing Lopez Mendez, which is supposedly one of the top ten beaches in the world! We thanked her thoroughly and headed to bed so we could rise early and hike to the beach and still leave the next day as our funds were low. Then the rain ensued...and ensued....and ensued. The rain stopped for a few hours during which we began our hike to the beach, hiking a 2.5 hour stretch in one hour, but we were saturated with rain and decided the beach would not be so impressive in the rain anyways so we bargained with a local boater to take us back to Abaraos. It still wasn't the greatest price, but since we were done with hiking in the rain, it was our best option. We kind of thought of it as a cheaper, shorter, more adventurous boat tour. It all works out. Once back in Abraao, we packed up our drenched tent and headed to Mangaratiba.
The boat ride to Mangaratiba was an epic journey in its own as the captain agreed to tow a smaller boat behind. Choppy waters apparently made this quite a task as the rope pulling the boat snapped twice, braking some of the railing beside where we were sitting with it the second! Fun times I suppose...we spent the rest of the ride standing with a watchful eye on the (much thicker) rope. We stayed in a hotel in Mangaratiba for some luxury and then made our way to Rio de Janeiro! More to come soon!

Photos: Village of Abraao from a viewpoint on one of our hikes. Our taxi boat captain in the rain. The end of our waterfall hike.