It wasn’t easy to leave behind our beautiful apartment in Rio for the prospect of four nights of camping, but we knew Ilha Grande would be worth it. A formal penal colony, it was now a tropical paradise accessible from Rio. Luckily, the weather had finally turned, with mostly sunshine and no rain in sight. 

First of Many Boat Rides

Being high season for Brazilian tourists, we weren’t sure about the availability of boat tickets to get there, particularly since the larger ferries didn’t seem to be running regularly from Angra dos Reis to Isla Grande since the pandemic, so were pleasantly surprised when we hopped off the bus from Rio and were presented with two options. The first was to take the shuttle boat, which was slightly more expensive per person, or take the taxi boat, slightly cheaper because there were four of us, and ready to go with two other people. With a couple from our bus, we were on the way within about thirty minutes. Bouncing on the waves in a small open boat in the sunshine on the way to a gorgeous tropical island, I was pretty happy.

Arriving in the main town (Abraao) on the island, it was the first time on the trip where we thought, wow, we could be in any backpacker town. Not that there were many foreign tourists (hardly any in Brazil actually, but the colourful beach shops, bars and narrow, dirt, pedestrian streets could have been in Thailand. It was busy but chill without the drunk tourists yelling in English. We wandered down a couple of streets to find our campground, which turned out to be super nice and friendly, along a little river with great facilities, unexpectedly even including wifi. We set up our tents and headed to a nearby (busy) beach for a first swim before sunset.

First Time Diving in nearly Three Years

Before arriving we had been in contact with a dive instructor who contracted with a dive shop he recommended. Unfortunately, no one seemed to know the shop, and the instructor was on a live-aboard. We finally found the dive shop and signed up for two dives the following day. We hopped on a boat to a beautiful bay with a small resort on the south part of the island.

Unfortunately the first dive we were paired with discovery divers who were diving for the first time and had to be physically guided by the instructors. The instructors let us go off on our own, but honestly, there was not a ton to see. Our second dive was dramatically better, as we took the boat across the bay without any brand new divers but lots of wildlife and significantly better conditions. Even though the diving wasn’t stunning, we had a great day in the sunshine and it was great to be back in the water with refreshed skills before heading to dive in Fernando de Noronha . 

Hiking to Remote Beaches

The next day we headed off on one of the many trails circumventing the island. You can actually hike around the whole island, which due to its size and steep inclines, would take about a week. Without that much time to spare, we headed east towards Praia de Pouso, where we spent most of the afternoon with very few others. Once you get out of Abraao, it really quiets down. That’s why we had originally only planned on staying two nights in the main town and moving to the other end of the island for the last two, but getting to the other side was proving to be complicated and expensive. Plus, we really liked our spot. As a compromise, we signed up for a boat tour of the north part of the island for the last day. It was amazing, apparently.

A Lost Day- for some of us

Unfortunately I had woken up in the middle of the night with some sort of stomach bug and was in no shape for touring. Marieke seemed to have a bit of what I had as well, so we stayed behind while Cheryl and Jon enjoyed the day. They were nice enough not to rub it in, but the photos were stunning. Meanwhile the highlight of Marieke and I’s day is when we both got fans from the campsite owner’s to cool down the tents and we could actually sleep in the middle of the day. Not the greatest end to our stay in Ilha Grande, but it was still a great time.