Ilha Grande

Ry and I left Rio on the first and headed a few hours south to a place called Ilha Grande. It´s an island just off the coast and is considered to have some of the nicest beaches in the world, so we figured it would be a good place to detox after Carnaval. The beach thing defintely wasn´t a lie as you can see from the pics. We didn´t do a whole lot beside hiking to the different beaches of the island and then lying on them. We ran into some other buddies there and were able to get a few fun nights in before they left. On the 4th we were surprised to see Jas and Jacky walking on the road (its a tiny town...so everyone has to walk up the road!) and spent the rest of the time bumming around with them. Not too much excitement to report on. Our attempt to go diving was thwarted by some minor cold onsets, and we didn´t want to risk going down there just to not be able to equalize properly, so it was vetoed. We´re now back in Rio to pick up Mr. Wilson, but have just learned that he wont be arriving for another day, so it looks like it´s back to sitting on Ipanema beach drinking Acai and eating cheese sticks.

Pictures!
Dos Rios beach - decent little hike to get there, pretty much totally abandoned and probably the nicest beach I´ve ever been to, would have been perfect for surfing as well.

View of the town from one of the hikes, awesome scenery around the island. Apparently the coves used to act as perfect bases for pirates back in the day, Ryan and I searched for several hours for treasure, but came up with only sunburns.

Lopes Mendes - Considered by some to be one of the top 5 beaches in the world, although very nice, I prefered Dos Rios. Test yourself and see if you can find Ryan in that shot... hint, he has a towel on his head.

Me and Ry in our Carnaval costumes, now that I see them, the fact that Mukuda helped pick them out and his love of 80´s hair bands...well, you can figure it out.

Adios!