We met a girl from Barcelona at our hostel in rio who wanted to come with us to Ihla grande so we booked a transfer via our hostel and were picked up in a minibus where there were 5 other Argentinian girls. Me and Ken squashed ourselves Ito the last two available seats next to a fat girl who complained about the heat the whole way and when we stopped to get food and water, only 30 mins away from our desination, she changed buses because she was so pissed off haha. We took a boat to the island which took 1.5 hours and found or hostel super easily. We noticed there were quite a few mosquitoes about and our room was tiny for a 9 bed dorm! We were sharing with 5 more Argentinian girls (all Argentinians are in search of watery places at this time of year) and a German woman called Petra who spoke with such a posh British accent. We later found out she lives in hampstead London and has roots in the weapons industry (cash cash monies). We hit up the nearest beach pronto as we were so hot from travelling and swam near the boats, saw a dead fish on the beach then fell asleep in the shade. We made friends with Petra who had made friends with a Brazilian guy called Sergio and we decided to trek 3 hours through the forest to reach one of the sickest beaches in the world. Dream team.
After an elaborate breakfast we set off, covering ourselves in suncream and bug spray in our bikinis (too hot for clothes) and trainers. Sergio asked three separate people the route (that's the rule here ask three times) and warned us about a certain poisonous snake, one of the most poisonous in the world, and the jaguars. We had read in the guide book that if we were to meet a jaguar, we should try to appear bigger than normal and shout. Yeah good luck. We were also told to watch out for monkeys.
We started climbing and it was literally climbing up a super steep rocky ascent for about an hour and then some downhill. The noise of an insect like a grasshopper was PIERCING and I was on the lookout for spiders. There were massive ants everywhere so we had to be really careful about where to put your hands when climbing!
We were told we'd reach two beaches before we got to the golden nugget... We came across the first which was so gorgous and had fallen mangoes along the beach! We had a quick dip to cool down and then continued the trek. We didn't swim in the second beach because by this point we were fucked and just wanted to get there! Each time we left the beach it was a steep ascent back up into the forest. We saw a tiny, cheeky looking monkey with a hairy face perched on a branch above us haha!
It was like a postcard when we got there, crystal clear turquoise sea, so warm, white sand and trees all along the beach!
We took a boat back to the main port where our hostel was and just chilled at the hostel. I cooked beans, rice and veg for me, Ken and Noelia (the girl from barca) and we tried and failed to connect to the wifi a few times.
The next day we went to 'black sand beach' where the sand is literally black it's crazy and makes it even hotter! We were asked to a home cooked dinner by a friendly black guy called Ronaldo who kept bumping into us on the island but we kindly declined and went about getting ourselves to the boat party....
It was free caipirinhas for the first hour while we were still docked, then we set off into the sunset with everyone half cut and dancing. The boat stopped and it was time to jump in which was sooo sick! I jumped in and then some other girl jumped and her head came up right in between my legs so I thought she must wanna be friends so introduced myself and she was like I love your accent which is weird because I thought you only got that in America. She was from Argentina!
Upon climbing back into the boat you had a shot poured into your mouth haha it was super fun. Me and Noelia played on a life ring and then I got told off for jumping in again when we weren't allowed to anymore.
The next day was shit because I woke up with 27 new bites on my legs and I could tell straight away they were different. Within a few hours they'd all swollen to about 3cm each and were really red and itching and burning like fuck. Kerri was worried about booking the transfer to florionopolis as we hadn't even able to sort it out because of the shit wifi and the last thing I wanted to do was make the journey feeling like this. It was so bad I couldn't even think straight to give her an answer and no cream or tablets were helping. I was sad and homesick and wanted some comfort, not a hot as fuck room with 8 other people with more Mosquitos flying around and no wifi!
I went to the drug store (haha so American) and got me some painkillers.
I considered going home in a big fat sulk. Skyped Sally, Olive and Helen and Olive was in her skeleton pyjamas and asked if I had a 'beetle in my bed'. I told her yes...haha. I was cheered up and we frantically booked our transfer because we'd left it to the last minute and the coach website was in portguese and so we had to get our amazing translator to help us again. Got woken up in the night by my bites hurting and then it was time to go! More sad goodbyes and then first journey alone without a Spanish/portguese speaker and longest yet commenced...
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