Week 12: The Lost Week

You may or may not have noticed that what "a week" constitutes when it comes to my blog, varies from... well, week to week. 

Because of this, this "week" is a particularly short one as I am trying to make up on time. 

And anyone who thinks I was calling it "The Lost Week" because I got really drunk and don't know what happened for a week - shame on you!

After a few hours on the minibus and a sunny boat trip we were put ashore on Ihla Grande. In former times both a penitentiary and a leper colony it is now a traffic free paradise. If it doesn't rain every day you are there. Which isn't fair actually as it was sunny the afternoon we arrived. We had booked into a hostel as a quick look had showed us it was all rather busy. So we headed to our 9 bed dorm, which consisted of 2 triple bunks and 3 singles. Luckily neither of us were on the top bunk. 

The island seemed to attract a variety of people. (Do you detect my distaste?) although I mustn't judge there were a few rather odd (read:annoying) characters. 

We quickly found our favourite eatery - a German owned buffet bar where they charge per 100g of delicious and wholesome food. Why we don't have anything like this at home I do not know. 

In the evening we joined with a group at the hostel containing a great mix of people from Sweden an Germany (who each said they thought at first I was from their country) to Brazil and goodness knows where else. 

Our one glimpse of sun on the boat to the island

We ended up heading to Che Lagarto, the party hostel of the island, but not before I picked up a creep who wouldn't leave me alone for hours an kept trying to tell me what to do. 

It was fun although I was disappointed at the lack of dancing, so it was left to us to start it up. Eventually Lou and I decided to ditch out and go to bed. On the walk home along the beach, it seemed like the logical thing to do to go for a dip. If you know what I mean, and for one of us it was the first time. When we got out we warmed ourselves by a fire which some considerate people had lit and were sitting around. However it wasn't that fun as I think they had all taken some of those substances which I have only ever heard about and weren't particularly sociable. 

The following day we walked to the island's most famous beach Lopes Mendes where the sand was so fine and soft it was like nothing I can describe and squeaked when you trod on it. The walk took about 2 and a half hours and as we arrived it began to rain so luckily many people were leaving. The rain eased up but it remained cool and cloudy so after a few hours we took the boat home. Later we went to a crepe bar where I had an 7.5/10 crepe with (obviously) banana and Nutella. 

That evening we just had a chill, writing postcards and reading books. 

The walk to Lopes Mendes

The following day was our last whole one on the island. When I woke up it was absolutely thundering down with rain, so I went for a run. It didn't let up the whole day so we went for a short walk which conveniently ended in a hot chocolate. That pretty much set the tone for the whole day. We just completed our catch up over hot chocolates, which eventually became wine and caipirinhas. We had dinner in the same place and for chatting to some other English girls, who invited us out for another drink at the crepe place. After we had our fill (the place closed) we headed back with good intentions but were cajoled into going out to the party hostel again. Here we bumped into Rob and Robin, a couple we had been with since Paraty and kept bumping into. 

Here is the interesting part. Since I have started travelling nobody has told me I remind them of you-know-who (no, not voldemort, and if you don't know who I mean I'm not telling you) who has a popular BBC television programme of her own name. Turns out, people just haven't been saying it to my face. I mentioned this fact to Robin who turned to her boyfriend and said "see! I told you she reminded me of xxxxxxx" oh goody.

The night didn't seem to promise a lot so we went to bed with an uneventful walk home. The next day was our transfer back to Rio. We had one last lunch at our favourite spot while it peed it down, yet again, before getting the boat. 

I know some people think I overreact when it comes to PDAs but what I saw on the boat was enough to put anyone off for life. I wanted to take a picture to prove how bad it was but I didn't want to look like a pervert. I can't even attempt to describe how inappropriate it was. Entwined doesn't even cover it. 

A cloud-free sky on Ilha Grande

After a rather alarming minibus journey back to Rio we were dropped down the hill from our hostel. We needed to make the most of our last night in Rio together so Stephanie, who worked in the hostel, pointed us in the direction of a samba party with free caipirinhas. Here we bumped into the people from our hostel in Ilha Grande and had great fun. Eventually we mutually decided to go home. The dancing of one gentleman in particular was getting on my nerves. He had clearly had too much panda pop, if you catch my drift. 

Before getting a cab we went down to Copacabana beach which was just across the way from the club. The waves were incredible and at one moment we got a little too bold and ended up getting soaked almost up to our knickers. 

Finally our last day together had arrived. The weather was abysmal but could have been worse. We decided to walk to the funicular rail station to go up the see Christ the Redeemer, as I approximated it was "only half an hour or so". An hour and a half later we arrived only to be told it was too cloudy to see the statue anyway. I guess third time's a charm, but there wouldn't be a third time, so we let it go. 

Instead Lou went on a Havaianas shopping spree and then we headed to a sushi restaurant for our last supper. It was possibly the best sushi I have ever had. We headed quickly to the large market, but found it not to e to our taste so we went back to the hostel to wait for Lou's cab to the airport. 

Delicious sushi!

Very kindly, Lou also agreed to takesome of my belongings back which I hadn't been using, and also brought out a few goodies, including a chocolate orange which I am saving for Christmas Day, and a very belated birthday present from Charles:

There was no putting off the inevitable so we eventually said goodbye, much to my dismay, as I would be back on the road by myself again. I spent the evening catching up on my blogs from the previous weeks before getting an early night in preparation for my 0700 flight.