We left Paraty the next morning on another bus ride; thankfully a lot less dramatic than the last. This was followed by a boat ride to the island and in an attempt to save money we decided to go on the local boat which took two hours (instead of the half hour tourist boat). By the time we arrived at the island we were super hot and bothered and the only hostel available on the whole island was one that got really bad reviews due to bedbugs. We were beginning to worry we had made the wrong decision.
However on arrival at the hostel we were immediately won over by our hostel manager, a friendly Dane who knew how to swear in Serbian and offered us cheap and delicious barbeque for dinner (did I mention the way to a Serbian girl’s heart?) From that moment on it was all uphill. We met friendly people at the hostel, which was relatively clean and comfortable despite the bad reviews, and we made ourselves at home.
We soon discovered how beautiful the island was. It had a wonderful relaxed Carribean island feel with people who were super friendly and seemed to be enjoying their chilled out lifestyles. Each beach that we saw was better than the last. The first day was spent relaxing on the beaches near the hostel and exploring the island and the next day we went beach hopping on a speedboat to like 5 or 6 incredible beaches. On the last day we even paid a visit to the self-proclaimed “world’s most beautiful beach”. Whether or not it is, is obviously a debatable subject, but it was definitely up there on my “world’s most beautiful beaches” list.
The cheap and shitty hostel turned out to be pretty cheap and shitty after all, especially when we were moved to a room with triple bunk-beds (the first time was exciting but the novelty of climbing up three flights multiple times a day quickly wore off). We also had various nights when the shower didn’t work which resulted in two relatively pissed off Serbs and a posse of furious Argentinian chavs (our hostel was full of them).
Luckily for us there were also nice people in the hostel, such as our new friend, Simon from London. Ceca introduced me to Simon and we all got on really well, chatting and joking around for ages. Only hours later did Simon politely mention that his name was actually Tom and he had no idea why Ceca had been calling him Simon for the last couple of hours. Thankfully he didn’t care and we even ended up calling him Simon for the rest of the trip. The next day he accompanied us on the speedboat cruise around the island; the highlight of which was when Ceca got almost eaten alive by the little fish on one of the stops. Apparently the fish here are as raunchy as the men and also prefer European women to bread.
The food here was delicious and our favourite discovery were these giant Brazilian empanadas filled with minced meat and shrimp….yummy….anyway it was by far one of the most beautiful beach destinations I’ve ever been to and we would have been sad to go, had we not had our first Rio carnaval waiting for us. We had already organised accommodation in the same street we stayed in previously (Rua Siqueira Campos in Copacabana, literally across the road from our previous flat) and had found two more people to share with; Alex, our gringo friend from Fox de Iguaçu and Monika. We also had our costumes and we were ready, or so we thought. Turns out nothing could quite prepare us for just how crazy it was going to be…
Ceca grew a slightly worrying obsession with Ilha Grande's big rocks; apparently they were fascinating although I didn't really see it
Ilha Grande's brass band beach party. It was pretty crazy but nothing in comparison to the gypsies at a Serbian wedding
It's a Brazilian island, all beach parties end like this