Day 14-Paraty to Ihla Grande

Today we woke up at 8 after staying out late.  I had a great time admiring the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of Paraty.  We loaded our gear in taxis and walked to the bus station.  I kept mine on my back as the walk to the station was very close.  We loaded as many of our packs under the bus and the rest we placed on the back seat behind the bus station attendant.



It was a beautiful 2 hour and 15 minute ride from Paraty to the boat docks.  We ended up going through rain storms and beautiful mountainous countryside.  I admired the scenery and took it all in.  On several occasions, i stuck my head out of the bus to smell the air and feel the rain on my skin.

We stopped the whole way down to mandara picking people up and dropping them off since we were in a public bus.  At one stop in particular, we picked up one of  Brazil's future models.  She was approximately 16 with the most mesmerizing smile, dark brown flowing hair, satin soft skin and completely heart stopping.  My friend Matt and Noah both made comments about how pretty she was.



When we arrived at port, we ate quickly, due to the fact that we had less time than we thought before the boat left.   We headed to this very old looking sailboat and as we boarded, the crew put our luggage down below.  I carried mine with me and left it right next to me.

The ride to Ihla Grande was approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes.  I had Bebel Gilberto playing the entire ride on my iphone and really was able to identify with her music as we made our journey across the ocean to this amazing destination.  I saw breath taking beauty with every mile traveled



We arrived to a little bit of rain and the local porters were anxious to get their hands on our bags to take them to the resort.  We stayed at the Mata Nativa.  It is a very quaint resort with focus on the surroundings.  It really blended in to the mountainside in which it rested.


A group of us unloaded our bags and went on a quick hike to see the old prison and the old aquaduct.  We took tons of photos and really enveloped ourselves into our natural surroundings.  Noah took some really cool shots of the old prison.  The hike back was about 30 minutes at which time we cleaned up, rested and finally left at 8pm for dinner.  I shared the Moqueca with Jeff and Hope.  Moqueca is a traditional Brazilian staple that has been around for 300+ years.  The basic ingredients are fish,onionsgarlictomatoescilantrochili pepper and additional ingredients. It is cooked slowly, with no water added.  Martin had the same dish without fish and ordered it with shrimp.  I sampled both and, they were incredibly delicious.




After dinner we headed back to our resort and decided to call it a night.  We were exhausted from traveling from Paraty to Ihla and we also knew that tomorrow would be a busy day exploring the island.  I think our entire camp was asleep by 10:30 at the latest.


More tomorrow.

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