Ilha Grande: swimming under sun and moon

Ilha Grande! I went there for 2 days and ended up staying for a week. Each day I'd delay my departure by one more day... finally I got to the point where I HAD to go back to Rio to get to work on a full-time writing job that has just started, but instead I just made a 12-hr roundtrip to Rio, and came right back to the island on the morning ferry (missing an entire night of sleep) with my laptop. If I have to work, it might as well be in the most beautiful place in the world, right?

Ilha Grande, the Big Island, had the good luck of being the site of a notorious prison until quite recently. (The famous transvestite singer Madama Sata ended up there.) That was "good luck" because it means nothing else was built on the entire huge island. While Copacabana's forest was being completely razed for high-rise hotels and condominiums, Ilha Grande remained a completely pristine patch of Atlantic coastal rain forest and mountain waterfalls, lined by idyllic coves and spacious beaches.

When the prison was shut down about 15 years ago, the state of Rio began carefully allowing tourism development there. They've been very savvy about keeping tourism's footprint small. There's just one tiny little town full of little pousadas dotted along the beach. No buildings more than 7 meters high. No big chain hotels. Any new pousada now has to buy a large plot of land and leave 80% of its land untouched and vegetated. 60% of the island is a national park, and it's about to be increased to 90%. The number of tourists allowed on the island will soon be limited by quota (reservations will be required). All to keep it pristine and tranquil. The former prison guards were hired to patrol & enforce these new regulations!

And there are no motorized vehicles on the island! No cars, not even motorcycles. (well, actually, there are 2 tiny police cars, one ambulance, and a tractor.) Instead there are dozens of skinny, hard-working guys with wheelbarrows and bicycle-carts, who shuttle the incoming food deliveries from the ferry to all the restaurants, and who will offer to take your suitcase in a wheelbarrow down the beach and across the stream to your pousada. After the endless traffic and noise of Rio, the peace and quiet of a motor-less island was absolutely a blessing.

It all adds up to the most idyllic, peaceful, safe spot... no noise, no crime, no pollution, no litter. No worries about feeling like a tourist or not knowing any Portuguese - everybody's a tourist there, so for once you don't feel out of place! And after Rio it seemed so clean.. even the working harbor (full of charmingly painted "boat taxis") is clean and lovely to swim in. The coast is lined with a rocky hiking trail - you can just follow it from one beach to the next - and the whole mountainous island is honeycombed with trails.

The booming metropolis of Abraao, on Ilha Grande:


I felt myself just relax and unwind.... suddenly I was sleeping all night and getting up at dawn, like a bird; like I haven't done in a year. I forgot all about nightlife and parties and just wanted to sit still and be calm. As my pousada owner Nicki said, "If you can't relax on Ilha Grande, you need a psychiatrist." It is the PERFECT post-Carnaval place.

I started practicing pandeiro again. I haven't touched it much since my Musical Confidence Crisis, but now it was fun again.

I did have to start serious work via my laptop - I'm working full-time now - but FROM ILHA GRANDE! I'd roll out of bed to a wonderful breakfast at my Tagomago Pousada (highly recommended - run by the incredibly friendly, helpful, and quadri-lingual Nicki). Then sit and work on my little balcony overlooking the bay. Tagomago's free fast wireless never let me down. Every couple hours, when I wanted a break, I'd walk 30 meters to the sea and jump in, swim around for a while. Play with the cute puppy on the beach. Lie in the sun till I dried off. Maybe grab a beer at the tiny beachside bar next door. Then back to work for another couple hours. God, I love wireless! Why haven't I ever thought of working from a tropical island before?

View from my balcony. I had a hammock too. It was sunny and 90 degrees every day.


Coffee break. Now that's a beachside bar. The waves were actually rolling under the tables. (it was high tide & full moon!)


There are boats that will take you to some of the more distant beaches. As soon as enough tourists show up on any one beach, magically some locals show up to sell you water, beer and sandwiches. If enough tourists show up, the floating bar appears - a boat with full bar on the stern, complete with bar stools and little tables. It anchors near shore and you just swim out to it and climb aboard.

There is one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been on (Lopes Mendes) on one side of the island, a great vast curve of soft white sand so fine that it squeaks when you walk on it. It is empty... just some fallen palm tree fronds.... a few coconuts that have rolled down the sand. Empty. It is dotted with cute, shy crabs that dart into their holes when you look at them. Ilha Grande's rush hour consists of the daily pilgrimage of five or six large boat taxis that drop people off near Lopes Mendes in the morning, and pick them up in the afternoon. But even with several large boatloads of people there, the beach is so huge you can find privacy if you want it.







My friend Patricia (a sambista from the Lions, and windsurfer/beachlover):


At the end of the day, you walk back along a sandy trail to the boat that will take you back home. Families of common marmosets (tiny monkeys come visit the trail to beg for any stray bananas that you might be carrying.




Rush hour:




There are tiny little beaches in every cove; and a beautiful black-sand beach right by town. I was expecting the "black sand" beach to be not as dramatic as it sounded, maybe a little gray-ish, but it turned out to have patches of truly jet black, sparkling sand, so mesmerizing that I immediately lay down and rolled around in it, and Pat immediately starting making a tiny black-sand drip castle that became so elaborate it attracted 3 little girls, and we all spent the next hour adding pebbles and flowers to it and building small subsidiary castle outposts.

Then we played in the ocean for another hour. After the enormous castle-building enterprise, the girls had completely gotten over their shyness and started showing us all their tricks: how they could swim under water and how fast they could count to ten and how they could pick up pebbles with their toes. The youngest one, an adorable 3-year-old in water wings, started swimming up behind me and patting softly at my back and arms with her hands. I'd pretend to be surprised and would squeal, and she would burst into giggles, swim away, then do the same thing again, a million times.

The black-sand beach was perfect for little kids: a nice safe cove with 1-foot waves, just big enough to be a bit of excitement for a little kid, not big enough to cause any danger. Over on the other side of the island there is bigger surf (and some surfers).

When the sun set, the girls finally left, with their (grateful-looking) parents. The oldest girl, who had demonstrated the keenest eye for finding pretty stones in the surf for the sand castle, came running back from a long way away, just to give me a pretty rock that she had just found. Two minutes later she came zipping back again with another pretty rock for Pat, then waved goodbye again and took off running again to catch up with her family.



This photo does not do it justice! Every grain of sand was placed with care! There are 2 subsidiary castle-lets out of view to the right.



Monkeys and parrots. Skinny-dipping at night under the lunar eclipse. Building sand castles with the kids. Playing with puppies on the beach. Feeding delicious grilled shrimp to a friendly little cat. Shopping for little seashell earrings and beautiful woven-twig fishes from the charming girls at the sidewalk stands. My friend Patricia danced forro (I had to work) and we both stood mesmerized at the amazing display of home-baked goodies at the two Dessert Carts Of The Gods that patrol the main town beach. Ate a lot of mango ice cream (self-serve, pay by the kilo! wow!) Played pandeiro with a clump of locals on the ferry. Lay in the sun. Swam. Lay in the sun some more. Swam. Lay in the sun some more.

If you have 2 days free in Rio and the weather is good and you want to get out of the big city:
1) Very-early morning option: Take a taxi at 4:30am to the downtown Rio bus station (say "Rodoviaria" to any cabbie.) Look for the "Costa Verde" bus company on the ground floor and buy a ticket on the 5:20am bus to Mangaratiba. The bus arrives at 7:20 and deposits you right at the ferry dock; the ferry leaves at 8am. Bus is about 15 reais, ferry is only 5 reais. Dump your bags at your pousada and catch the next boat to the Lopes Mendes beach, where you can lie under a palm tree all day and catch up on your sleep.

2) Later morning option: Take a taxi or bus at 10am or so to Rio's big downtown bus station, find the Costa Verde booth on the ground floor, and buy a ticket on the 11am-ish bus to Angra dos Reis. Costa Verde has frequent buses to Angra & I don't remember the exact schedule - but this bus ride is about 3 hrs long so be sure you leave in time to catch the 3:30pm ferry. The person at the Costa Verde station will know exactly which bus you should take to catch the ferry. Get off where the bus turns around, by a little plaza. Ask anybody "Barco [boat] para Ilha Grande?" and they will point you toward the ferry terminal one block away. Bus is about 30 reais, ferry is 5 reais.

These hours are for weekdays. I'm not sure about weekends. I know there's one extra Friday ferry that leaves late at night.

Lodging runs from 30 reais per person to 230 per double room, depending on spiffiness and view.

Bring cash - there are no ATMs on the island!