Ilha Grande

I had to visit at least one tropical island whilst I was in Brazil. So I decided to make a side trip from Rio to an island called Ilha Grande (big island) just a little south from the city. With Quinton in tow, I headed there for a few days of sunshine, white sand and clear warm waters.
After a couple of hours on a bus and then a couple of more on a boat, we finally arrived on the island. We were of course accosted by touts trying to get us to stay in various pousadas and after looking at a couple we decided to stay in one called Pousada Ilha Grande - very original name! It was pretty nice though, we had our own little room with a tv and dvd player and the guys who ran the place had a huge dvd collection so we were excited about days on the beach followed by nights in watching movies! We didn`t have many hours of sunlight left after arriving so we just walked around the very cute little town and had some dinner at a por kilo place (they have these buffets here that you pay by the kilo, they`re great!) before heading back to the pousada to watch our first movie choice, Blood Diamond. However we were foiled by a black out that lasted till the morning!
Our first day we decided to do a little boat trip around the island with some snorkelling. Pity this side of the island seemed to be used as a tip! We noticed a lot of rubbish in the water and it wasn`t the clean, clear water I had been promised in brochures! No one else seemed to notice or care that they were swimming amonst yoghurt tubs and plastic bags, but Quinton and I were pretty disappointed. We did visit a lovely little beach that had beautiful waters and soaked up lots of sun, so it was still a really nice day. That night we were pretty tired, we just had some dinner at a really cheap buffet place we had found followed by some cake - they have vendors down by the water front selling every cake imaginable! Back at the pousada we finally watched Blood Diamond - great movie by the way!
Day two, we had decided to head to the beach of Lopes Mendes, which some say is the most beautiful beach in Brazil. A few years ago, you had to walk two or so hours through the rainforest to get to this beach, but the island had grown pretty rapidly in tourism so luckily for me there are now boats that take you most of the way...there is just a half an hour walk to get to the beach from where you get dropped off. I have to say the beach was pretty damn nice. Beautiful white sand, palm trees, crystal clear warm water and gentle waves - just the typical tropical island beach I had been looking for. We spent the day there, lazing in the sun and swimming - perfect! We had buffet again for dinner followed by per kilo ice cream - self service ice cream buffets with chocolate sauces and lollies! This island was great for my sweet tooth, not so great on the waistline!
And that was the end of our little island jaunt. The next day we left for Rio. It takes nearly the whole day to get back and Quinton had a flight to Bolivia that night. We met some lovely ladies from Rio who helped us get our bus back - think I`ve already mentioned how nice the people from Rio are. Really, they are the nicest people from a big city I have ever met, and definatly the nicest so far on this trip.
Quinton and I said our goodbyes at the bustop, he was off to the airport, me back to the hostel for an early night before my flight to Salvador the next day.