In Ilhabela we got lucky with a really
nice hostel (Bonns Ventos), had a swimming pool and a pool table and
a really good breakfast. As we were only there for a few days we
didn't want to waste any time. The first day was spent organising
bus tickets, doing laundry and sorting out a tour for the following
day. The best beach, Castelhanos, was on the other side of the
island and only accessible by boat or 4WD. We decided on the
slightly cheaper, but still expensive 4WD option. Sitting in the
back of a really old but well looked after Ford we drove for 2 hours
to get to the other side. Definitely needed a 4WD here, a massive
amount of mud. Lots of sliding around and very bumpy, the Brazilians
seemed to find the whole thing completely hilarious and couldn't stop
giggling. We got to the beach and then walked for a couple of KM to
get to a waterfall with a natural pool. By then it had clouded over
and it wasn't exactly hot any more so I allowed my whoosiness (do'nt
know how to spell it) to prevail and decided not to get in. Dave did
brave the water and obviously said it was good and refreshing, not
bloody freezing! It was a fairly good waterfall, though after Iguazu
Falls we're pretty hard to impress. Walked back down to the beach
and spent an hour in the sea. Couldn't spend much time on the beach
as there were millions (that isn't much of an exaggeration) of biting
flies.
The next day we went to another nice
beach, just a short bus ride away and hoped the sun would come out,
but it couldn't be bothered and I finally gave up on the sunbathing.
Although Ilhabela is quite pretty, it wasn't as nice as Ilha Grande
and the bugs were murder. By the time we left I had well over 60
bites. Itchy!
