Ilha Grande

I was instantly in pain when my alarm went off. It was 9:00am but I had gone to sleep just three hours before and my head was throbbing due to lack of sleep. I knew I had to be awake to figure out our transfer to Ilha Grande (which was scheduled for 10:30am) and pack up my stuff. As I lay in my bed checking my emails, the lady who works at the hostel came in the room to see why we weren't ready to be picked up. After the arguments that had occurred the night before between myself and the night manager about the transfer, I was certain that they would not be picking us up and I had confirmed a different transfer online. She seemed very upset that we didn't think the transfer she set up would be coming and kept asking why I didn't trust her and why I'd didn't believe her. Finally I felt so bad that I relented and agreed we would take her transfer. The problem was that it was coming to get us at 9:30am (she had originally told us between 10:00-10:30) and we still had to pack and find an ATM to get cash because there were no ATMs on the island and not everyone there takes credit card. I woke up Alyssa and we frantically packed up our things, trying our best not to wake the other 7 people still sleeping in the room. We then went on a search for an ATM. The one in the supermarket across the street from our hostel refused our cards so we had to walk about ten more blocks until we found a Citibank. With cash in hand, we returned to the hostel, paid Kevin the money that we owed him from the night before and jumped in the van that was there waiting for us. We were both exhausted and hungover so we tried to sleep in the van during the two hour ride to Angra dos Reis.

Once we arrived, we were told in Portugese that we would need to wait until 3:00pm for our ferry to the island, even though there was one that left at 1:00pm. It was 12:15pm when we arrived and the thought of sitting in the heat for a few hours was miserable. We tried to pay extra to purchase the earlier ticket, but instead accidentally upgraded to the faster boat that also left at 3:00pm. When we found out that "fast boat" means it takes 45 minutes instead of the 50 minutes that the other boat takes, we asked for a refund and decided to wait for the "slower" boat. We were able to hide our bags behind a counter in an abandoned restaurant and then set out in search of some lunch.

We originally sat down at a restaurant but when they didn't bring us menus after 10 minutes, we left and found one of the lunch buffets that we like. The guy who worked there was very friendly and spoke some English so we were able to get food and drinks without any issues. The place had no a/c so we sat near a fan, desperately trying to cool ourselves down. Thankfully the food was good and I had a couple of Cokes in an attempt to rehydrate myself. After lunch, we decided to go sit in the abandoned cafe so we could make sure our bags didn't get stolen. The cafe was right on the water, so we could watch all of the people down at the beach. As we sat there, some people walked by who we recognized. We had met them when we had lunch on the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls- so random! They had just left Ilha Grande and were waiting for their bus to Rio, so we chatted with them for a while about the different things we should do own the island. Finally 2:30pm rolled around and we made our way to the boat. We were the only ones on the boat (it seemed that everyone else had paid for the fast boat which still blew our minds) so we spread out and slept during the hour ride to the island.

When we arrived, we found that the island was packed with people because of the holiday weekend. I had directions for how to reach the hostel, but they were very confusing so we wandered around town for over 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get there. It is extremely frustrating when you are tired, hungover, hot and carrying a 50 lb backpack not to be able to find your hostel. Finally, we were able to get correct directions from a local and we were on our way.

The hostel was not on the main strip but instead up the hill a little way. It had a beautiful view of the ocean and surrounding areas though which we liked. We we put in a 4 person dorm even though we had paid for a 6 person dorm because the place was completely packed and we were told we'd have to change rooms the next night.

We got settled in and lay down for a few hours to rest. During this time, I was desperately trying to use the internet to book a hostel in Auckland, New Zealand since we would be flying there in a few days, but since the internet was so bad, booking anything was slow going. Finally we decided to walk around town and grab a snack. As we emerged onto one of the main streets, we saw people gathered around a cart. The carts served delicious meat sandwiches as well as tons of desserts. We decided to split one of the steak sandwiches which was so good!

We then walked around town, getting an idea of where everything was located. We stopped to talk to one guy who was feeding a baby bird that he had found and it turned out he was a travel guide. He gave us some pointers on what we should do on the island, but also confirmed our fear that it was definitely going to rain the following day.
We headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready for dinner. There we met a guy from Denmark named Casper and invited him to join us for dinner. We went to a cute little restaurant right on the beach with great lighting and ambiance. I was really too tried to hold an interesting conversation but luckily Alyssa had woken up a bit and was very engaging. I was fairly certain Casper was wishing this was a dinner for just the two of them anyways, so I was more than happy to pay minimal attention to the conversation and more attention to our beautiful surroundings.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel for some much needed sleep. When we arrived, there were two guys already asleep in our dorm. They had come back after we had left so we had never met them before. This was the first time that we had slept in a room with people we didn't know and I felt a little uncomfortable as a result and made sure my things were all locked up just in case.

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