Saturday 11th September - Rio De Janeiro - Ilha Grande
Finally paying our bill proved to be a pain as they insisted we entered a PIN number for our credit card - again we gave up and paid in cash instead . We turned down the offer of a 'safe taxi' (aka 'my friend who lives around the corner') to the bus station and chanced one with a license plate instead. The bus journey of 100 miles took 3 hours due to picking up and dropping off the locals along the way. Another taxi took us to the boat for Ilhe Grande - it left at 1pm and took 1.5 hours to arrive at the island. The day was overcast and cloudy so it didn't quite feel as 'tropical' as it might have done. We soon found a room with a balcony overlooking the beach for 60 reals (12 quid) a night. There are no roads here which makes the presence of a police car here all the more puzzling - we've seen it drive past us 3 or 4 times already! The island itself has apparently got the 'last remaining untouched Atlantic rainforest' and many spread out beaches which are hard to access (except by boat). There is lots of accomodation and restaurants here and just like in Rio fish dishes come with a high price tag - we've seen good old 'prawn cocktail' available in places for 15 pounds! Tonight we were sitting in almost darkness as there has been a power cut to the island which has lasted all afternoon and into the evening . However, it was restored in time to hear a religious combo blasting out their latest tunes from the town square (if you could call it that). We knew they were religious as every so often in his crowd-rousing speeches the main man would say 'Hallelujiah'!

Sunday 12th September - Ilha Grande
Welcome to Ilha Grande - or so the sign said - so we spent our day 'discovering' the main town where we're staying. A dog in occassional pain (óouurrooooo') took us from dreamland and we had the first bit of decent bread for breakfast since we left New Zealand. We persuaded the people in the laundrette that our load of washing was actually less than 3kg (their scales started at 0.5kg preloaded - unfair we thought). There were many places to stay available so we visited a few and Derek practiced his Portugese before we decided we actually like our ocean front sea-view room with a hammock included! The day was again overcast with almost a hint of rain in the air. We thought our lunchtime special was pasta 'with' a salad - instead the salad was 'in' the pasta - doesn't sound good, we know, but in fact it all tasted great! We got tired walking down the beach so we stopped for a beer - we met an Aussie girl called Meredith and chatted a while . Tonight we're in a romantic little restaurant about 10 metres from the beach playing soft jazz music and it's raining outside - the local cocktail of 'Cairpirinha', a white spirit made of sugar cane topped up with lime, is going down sweetly too. Sue had too much of the 'Cairpirinha' earlier and is now starting to annoy Derek. The locals seem to enjoy 'sleeping on the job' during the day and the police car is still dutifully going around in circles and apprehending nobody!

Monday 13th September
After hearing our German host/owner talk non-stop to some unfortunate German girls over breakfast, we escaped and headed off towards 'the most beautiful beach in Brazil'. We followed the signs for what we thought was the 'T10 route' to get there, along coved beaches and winding rainforest paths. Alas, we had taken the wrong route completely but by the time we figured this out, it was too late to walk the proper route and catch the boat back home. For the third day running cloud and wind was the order of the day . We came accross a grotty old jail on another walk on the opposite side of the town later - we did not enter fearing what we might find in there. We booked ourselves some accomodation in Rio and Lima for the weekend on the net and met Meredith from Adeliade, who we met yesterday, for drinks and dinner (and ice cream later). Sue managed to knock out part of one of her teeth whilst eating the ice-cream but is happy that it seems no serious damage was done.

Tuesday 14th September
At last we awoke to blue skies and hot sunshine - the whole place looked even better. Now armed with a map we headed off for Lopes Mendes (the beautiful beach). Immediately we started on a long steep climb which lasted for the best part of an hour-in hindsight we were lucky to get lost yesterday as the views today were both clear and far reaching. We hit the first beach and refuelled on water as we were both sweating and the day was hot. Another steep climb and decline brought us to the 'boat pickup' beach where we stopped off for lunch and tried to avoid the interest of the local goose! One more climb and incline and we'd made it to 'Lopes Mendes' beach - the only sounds there were those of huge crashing waves, definitely the best we've seen yet . There were a few souls there lapping up the sun who also either did the walk or caught the early morning boat there. After a quick dip and dry off it was a boat trip home and a very choppy one at that! We survived to enjoy an excellent met kebab dinner and grab dessert off the man who sells every dessert you can think of from the back of an old cart.

Wednesday 15th September
After yesterday's foray through the forest we seemed to have gotten a taste for more walking through steep hills - so off we headed toward the local waterfall which was 1.5 hours walk away. This time though the climb was even tougher and towards the end we were going up what seemed a near vertical hillside before another huge drop took us to the riverside. If we had known what was ahead of us at the start of the day we would've stayed here - still we were glad we went as the fall was a great place to cool down and relax whilst all that exercise and hard climbing is something we could do with too! Vila do Abraao, the main town where we've been staying, has a population of 3,000 out of an island total of 8,000. Some more vehicles have turned up on the island since we've arrived to keep the cop car company. We've spotted a digger, a dump truck and a fire 'van' which can ferry their firefighters from one end of the street to the other in double quick time we guess! It's also a bit of a dog's paradise here with many different types running about having a great time it seems. It'a a very quiet time of the year at the moment for the locals but great for us as it ain't too hot! The few people who are here seem to be either German or Irish strangely!