Ilha Grande

We are in Ilha Grande now. It took us 3 hours on a bus, and then 1.5 hours on a boat to reach the island. It is beautiful and isolated. There seems to be only one town, the rest of the island is just beach upon beach upon beach.

Yesterday we went on a 4 hour hike (roundtrip) to the most exotic beach I have been to. There were maybe 10 people on the whole beach, and both sides of the beach had a river that met the ocean. The sand was so fine, the fresh water mixed with the salt water and created the clearest, greenish, bluish, water ever. It was grand and magical. All I could see in the background was a mountain, and lush green trees everywhere. There were times on the hike where we heard really scary noises in the middle of the jungle, that we later found out were monkeys. I felt as though I was in LOST at times.

We had a whole day of playing on the beach, running around on the sand, building a fish bowl out of sand, collecting small fish to put in the fish bowl, rubbing black sand over our bodies in order to look like warriors, climbing a rock and jumping off of it, floating down the river as the currents built up when the ocean met with the river, and then swimming around in the ocean. We left right before a storm started and ended up walking back in a torrential downpour. It was ironic because on the way to the beach we were telling Kenny about our experience at Iguazu and then the exact same thing happened again on our way back. We were soaking wet when we made it back to town, and the town was going crazy due to a soccer game, I think they won because people were screaming and running down the streets.

Time is really moving fast and slow at the same time. My trip is almost over. I have a week left and can´t believe it will all be over so soon. I am excited to get back to SF, there are so many things about America that I took for granted, and as much as I love travelling and exploring new situations and places, I am very happy to get back to what is familiar, to my friends and family, and to a city that I call home. I´m sure that it will be bittersweet, but the good thing is, there will always be more time and places to visit in the future.