TNT Travels

The journey to Ihla Grande

The drive was going well. I got us out of Rio without incident but then my navigation went a bit array. My offline map wouldn’t give me a route to the ferry port but I could get to a car park nearby. However, the waze app did give me a route but the info was conflicting. We then lost Wi-Fi single so I had to rely on the one map. I got a bit flustered when I saw the sign to the Angra dos Reis ferry port earlier than I was expecting. We ended up at a big security gate that looked like it was more used to seeing lorry drivers lugging giant containers rather than us. However, thanks to google translate and a very helpful security chap; I learnt we were 6km east of where we needed to be. At this point we were 45mins before our boat was due to leave.

We got to the car park I was looking for originally and then legged it wheeling our cases to where we saw a load of people getting off a ferry. We asked another security guard if that was the boat we needed. It seems he didn’t understand my ticket but told us to go down there anyway. 5 mins later, another guy told us we were going to the wrong place and pointed us in another direction. Anyway, long and short of it is, 3 more people gave us conflicting info but we made our boat 8mins before it was due to leave. We shouldn’t have worried though as about 10 more people turned up after us.

The boat crossing was only 30mins during which time Terry managed to accidentally swat a wasp into a guys face near us. The guy whacked it away and it landed on the lap of a girl sat in front of Terry who leapt up with a scream. A mildly entertaining chain of events, albeit short lived.

Ihla Grande

Ihla Grande is not a big place.

It consists mainly of one small town, full of back packers, hippies and us (im)mature types. The 1st bit of WhatsApp communication between the hotel and myself lost a bit in translation and we ended up waiting 50mins for the boat taxi to our hotel. The language barrier only derailed one other time which resulted in a sandwich and not a toastie, so not really something you would fall on your sword over!

The hotel we stayed in was in a fab location. https://www.booking.com/Share-Pb0bwM and only a 10mins boat trip to the main jetty in the town.

It had a short walk to the nearest beach. Although just ‘a short 5-10min walk along a path’ was accurate, it left out that you would be scrambling up and down over tree roots and rocks. Not really flip flop friendly conditions.

We rewarded our endeavours with a couple of drinks at the beach bar.

Having decided we were now ‘out out’ we headed back to our hotel bar just in time for 2-4-1 caipirinha happy hour from 5-7pm. Needless to say it was a fairly easy task to get sh1tfaced on caiprahina.

We got the boat taxi, with drink in hand (their suggestion to enable us to fit another one in, not ours). Basically we left on the 7pm boat to paint the town red and ended up calling for the return taxi at 9pm. Terry doesn’t remember sitting on the jetty for 45 mins, nearly falling head first into the boat and then sleeping on the 10min ride back to hotel.

An enjoyable afternoon /evening though and not a budgie smuggler in sight.

After our grand plans, made during the previous day, of doing loads of kayaking, swimming, exploring, we spent the second day lounging around the hotel on sun loungers. It was a far more sedate affair than the previous day.

We had booked a meal at a popular restaurant on the beach, following its rave reviews. Lua e Mar. They didn’t have enough seats so just added another row of plastic table and chairs on the sand. It seems like this was common practice until they run out of sand. It was busy and slightly unorganised so we ended up waiting an 1hr 45min for food. It seems to be a theme with us, we must either look patient or not in need of a feed. I know which theory I’d go with!

It was a lovely atmosphere though and the tide came it to about 2 feet away from our feet.

Every item in the menu was to share so you need to reach a consensus over what to eat. It was pretty straightforward for us, El Tel said I could pick for us so I chose seafood spaghetti. He fancied the salmon though, so we had salmon!

All in all, we had a great time here. If we were to plan the trip again we would have had 3 nights not 2. On the bright side, I had one night less of being bitten by mozzies.

The boat trip back went well, the hire car was still where we left it and we drove to Paraty, a couple of hours down the road without incident. We just had one stop at a place that had been well signposted as ‘Observatório Nuclear’. We thought it was a strange name but given all the signage, it was clearly a popular stop. We thought it was a services but it was more like Chernobyl meets Jodrell Bank. Had a quick wee and left before it had time to glow green.

Paraty

It has a really charming old town.

To once again quote google “Paraty is a small town backed by mountains on Brazil’s Costa Verde, between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Its Portuguese colonial center has cobbled streets and 17th- and 18th-century buildings dating to its time as a port, during the Brazilian Gold Rush”.

El Tel’s observation of the place steeped in history was it’s not the place to learn to ride a bike. Terry reckons you would have butt cheeks like biceps riding around here. All I can say is that they must learn to ride bikes differently in Newport. This kid obviously thought differently though.

More winged things

Not sure what we are doing wrong but mozzies love me and wasps like El Tel. Terry ordered a cocktail called Jorge Amado (it allegedly originated from Paraty) which is like the wasp equivalent of a chick magnet. I ordered a caipirinha, clearly not learning my lesson from 48hrs previous. It’s like moonshine.

I wanted to learn more about the infamous Jorge Amado cocktail and found a very helpful explanation about exercising caution when drinking it.

Other key learnings we had:

◦ You get charged for live music. It comes under the bill as an artistic fee. Thinking of getting El Tel on the bongos, he has previous form

◦ Rainfall is like something of biblical proportions. It comes down hard and seemed to generally last an hour or so. There is no real drainage in Paraty. We (El Tel) ignored the hotel’s advice to walk the longer way into the old town to avoid the flooded streets. Apparently, to stop your feet getting wet, all you need to do is rock back on the heels of your feet and walk a bit like a penguin. This works ok if you have feet like his which are the size of small canoes. I ended up taking off my trainers and walking barefoot through god knows what.

◦ When you are married to a retired plumber, don’t trust him when he kindly offers you the first shower. When I emerged without having been electrocuted he deemed it safe to shower.

◦ There appeared to be a lack of taxis versus everywhere else we have been. It didn’t impact us but if visiting I would definitely stay in or near to the old town

◦ Toilet seats – all through a lot of this area of Brazil, the loo seats are padded so if you are lucky, you squat into a seated position with the sensation of velvet cupping your buttocks. If you are unlucky, you sit down quick and emit a sound like a giant on a whoopee cushion. Ok in a hotel room, not so clever at the beach banos!

Trinidade

Just 30mins down the road (by car) are some of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil according to other blogs. From the end of the small town, it’s worth a 15/20 min walk across a beach and a bit of up/down through a rainforest to see some stunning scenery.

If you stay in town, your view is wall to wall sun umbrellas, one plastic table with 4/5 chairs around them.

We got to Praia do Cachadaco where there are only 2 restaurants on the beach, just doing seafood.

Our waiter LOVED Man Utd and Elton John so we got serenaded on our sun loungers with Glory, Glory Man Utd and Goodbye Englands Rose. Two extremes but he could hold a tune!

Last night in Paraty

On the last night, we booked into the same restaurant where I had knocked and smashed my G&T over during the previous night, whilst animatedly telling a story using my arms as well as my mouth. They were very accommodating at the time and replaced my drink foc.

Superb food, service and atmosphere. Love the way the guitarist/singer has a giant tv screen behind him. He croons away whilst the locals watch the football behind him.

We weren’t sure why the restaurant, called Margarida Cafe, doesn’t get mentioned in many blogs because it was full and lots of other places were empty. The food and service were fantastic.

We knew it was a classy place when we got ketchup presented this way.

I excelled myself by ordering (in Portuguese) an Irish coffee without whisky but with rum. There was defo a design flaw with the presentation.

Also, that’s not the rum in a shot on the side, it’s water. Who knew!

Again, another place where we could easily have stayed an extra night.

Instead, the next day entailed driving 4 1/2 hrs to Sao Paolo……