Ilhabela

The sun was just rising when we left Sao Paulo on the Opel Corsa Luis bought in Brazil. Good news, the sky is clear. Quite an important thing actually, since the success or failure of this trip is strongly determined by the weather. This area of Brazil is known by the very frequent rainfalls, they say it is almost impossible to spend more than a couple of nights there without rain and very often when it starts it does not stop for days. In a trip based only on the beach factor, is really critical that this does not happen. I was hoping the guy in charge of the weather up there was feeling in debt with me after how badly he fucked me up in Torres del Paine. For the time been, he seemed to be willing to help…

On the other hand, the couchsurfer who had decided to join us happened to be a very friendly blondie called Crystal. I guess at this point some things no longer suprise me, like meeting a estonian girl who speaks perfect portuguesse, studies in Texas and takes any opportunity she gets for spending periods of time in Brazil. She was our new travel partner for the beach trip and fitted in very nicely, making the experience more funny

In order to arrive in Ilhabela from Sao Paulo you have to drive to São Sebastião, in the coast, and there take a ferry for crossing the little distance between the island and the continent. This might be tricky cause the places is supposed to be a very popular destinations for “paulistas” on a weekend trip but, the truth is that we got into the first ferry without queues and didnt find the island too crowded.

Ilhabela is quite big, about 348 km². Only the West part is accessible for a standard car. Surrounding the islands there are plenty of beaches, diving points and, in the middle of it, the tupid Atlantic rainforest. This is possible what impressed me the most in this trip. The landscape of this part of Brazil is amazing, a very deep green everywhere, spread over thousands of small hills (morros) with white sand beaches in between them. Morro, beach, morro, beach, morro, beach and like this for hundreds of kms. And the islands areno different, they always have deep vegetation in the center and cliffs and beaches on the borders.

Therefore, the most easy thing to do in Ilhabela is to hang around in the West coast, where one can drive through the only decent road in the island. In order to get to the most remote and lonely beaches of the East (like the one named Castellanos), it is necessary to hire a boat or a jeep. No big deal, the accessible part is good enough. The ferry will take you to Villa Ilhabela, in the center of the East costlinea and, from there you can either go North or South. We were told the beaches in the South had more people but were nices so we headed there… And they were right, the coastline there was great and the only complain was about that ugly and big petrol ship which you could see next to the continent ruining the picture.

The two beaches we visited, Praia Grande and Praia Juliao, didnt dissapoint. The first one is next to the road and is more typical, with bars, chairs to lay down and all this touristic stuff. The second one is a bit more isolated, you have to walk down a sort way to get there and there are less people and infraestructure. They are both quite good, with white sand and clear water. In Juaio beach you also have a few rocks in different sizes. The ones closer to the shore form a sort of natural pools to have a quiet bath and the ones bigger more into the sea are a perfect opportunity to climb in order to get the stupid risky picture of the day.

Another thing you can do in Ilhabela is to get lost in the Atlantic rainforest I was describing earlier. There are a few paths to walk (trilhas in portuguesse) around the island, not so many and so good as in Ilha grande tho. We did the hike to Cachoeira dos Tres Tombas which is not really a hike since you can get almost there by car. It is worthy anyway, not that we are talking about the Iguazu falls but in those ones you can get right underneath and get a very refreshing natural shower.

And this was more or less all we did in our short visit to the island, appart from a nice lunch-dinner and some funny talking with a Spanish guy in charge of a boat renting shop who got so glad to see us that he spent a lot of time giving us advices about places to go and things to do. It would have probably been good to have more days there but for me it was fair enough as it was. Besides, there was the mosquito issue. I wil speak about this in the next posts but in this area of Brazil, the presence of these little motherfuckers is a very serious problem and Ilhabela is known to be the worst place for that. Thats why we never thought about spending the night there. Even though we were using the repelent all the time, as the evening was coming we were discovering more and more bites.

Cambury, on the coast, was our next destination. We had booked a hostel there which happened to be literally in the middle of nowhere. It was not close to the beach as we had tought when we made the reservation on the Internet but, in order to get there, you had to drive a few kms of non-paved road heading into the rainforest. The choice was probably not the best for a Saturday night. Luis and I were feeling like having a few caipirinhas at least but just the idea of having to drive all the shitty road back to Cambury made us give up this idea. Anyway, the day had started at 5am and, for one time, I had no bastards snoring in my hostel room. Everything was pusing us into a quiet resting night.

Ihla Grande vs Ilhabela

Two not very distant places in the brazilian coastline, one in the Rio De Janeiro state, the other one in Sao Paulo state. They are both similar: isolated paradisiac islands with nice beaches and plenty of vegetation. So I am going to pretend this is a tourist guide and set a little comparation between them so possible travelers may decide which one is good for them.
Advantages of Ihla Grande:

• From my point of view is more spectacular. The beaches are amazing and also the hikes, like the one to the Papagayo peak I did with Germán. Beaches in Ilhabela are more crowded and not so paradisiac.
• It lacks the serious mosquito issue that Illabela has.
• There are more things to do there appart from beaches and hikes. You have these boat trips to interesting spots such as the cave and the green lagoon or the blue one.

Advantages of Ilhabela:

• It is easier to get there than to get to Ilha Grande. There is a free ferry for pedestrians which takes only 30 min to get there and departs very frequently. In order to get to Ilha Grande you need a boat which takes quite a while and have a ridicolous timetable (unless when I was there).
• There is more infrastructure in the island, including a road (no roads in Ilha Grande), so it is easier to move from one beach to the next (in Ilha Grande the only way to do that is by long hikes that I guess not everybody fancy).
• It is a more brazilian destination and therefore cheaper than Ilha grande. You dont see gringos in Ilhabela while Ilha Grande is full of them, with backpackers style youth hostels and stuff like that for those who feel more comfortable hanging around with australians than with brazilians. This obviously has an influence on the prices.

Concluding, Ilhabela is probably a better destination for people with a car looking forward a couple of days scapade of Sao Paulo in which the plan is just to go to the beach, maybe also visiting some other place in the nearby coast. On the contrary, Ilha Grande well deserves to be the main goal of a trip in which the idea is not just to lay on the sand but also to do more active stuff

Tags: Beach