Ilhabela Adventures

The next morning involved preparing for a short but traveling packed weekend to the coast line- Ilhabela (beautiful island). Kathryn, another fellow ETA, Jake, and I successfully navigated the metro through the city, but not without some hiccups. I couldn’t figure out how to feed my ticket into the booth, and Jake’s ticket didn’t work. All in all, we arrived at the rodoviaria (bus terminal), bought our tickets, and took the four hour bus ride to Sao Sebastiao. From there, we took the ferry across, which is free for pedestrians. With a backpack each, we walked along the coast to our hostel, and stopped to have dinner on the beach. The 5 kilometer walk seemed a lot longer than we had anticipated with the weight of our backpacks! We had troubles finding our hostel as it was buried back in the woods up a long cobblestone steep driveway. The three of us fell in love with the atmosphere and ambiance of the hostel! To and the night, Jake and I went for a dip in the pool and shared a beer. Our room ended up having about nine people in it!

In the morning, Jake and I ate the hostel breakfast and enjoyed our coffee with food and a view of the mountains overlooking a coastline. We inquired about island tours, trying to make the most of our time on the island, and set out for a day excursion beach trip. While we were walking towards Maremar, a hostel employee offered to drive us there! We made it to the escuna, popped open a drink, and boated towards the beaches Frome and Jabaquara.

The water was crystal blue and a medium temperature- not bath water and not freezing. Along the beaches were also small pool of colder water leading into the ocean. It was a cloudy day, but I still managed to get sunburnt, as always. We spent a few hours romping around the beaches, treading water, and enjoying the views. Following that, Jake and I went to dinner at one of the most amazing restaurants I have ever been to. We were on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the city streets with a live guitarist playing. We shared a seafood platter, and I was really surprised to like the cerviche! I was really surprised and still baffled as to what I thought about the passion fruit risotto. The brownie with homemade sorbet at the and made the meal absolutely complete. To end the night, we strolled around town by the water.

The next morning, our last few hours in Ilhabela, we wanted to squeeze in some hiking and waterfalls! Ilhabela in chuck full of waterfalls, if you know where to find them. The hiking path across the island that we wanted to take was closed down due to a storm that had damaged it, but instead we went to hike Cachoeira Frigagem. It was a few kilometer trek up a mountain, through residential areas, trails, and past a lot of bugs. The waterfall was worth it! There was even a small pool of water at the bottom that we lounged in.

On the walk back to the hostel then ferry, we waited at least forty minutes for a late bus that never arrived. We decided to speed walk back to the hotel, taxi to the ferry, and super speed walk to the bus terminal. It was an intense thirty minutes of hurrying and rushing to try and not miss the bus back to Sao Paulo. By time we reached the terminal there were only four tickets left, and three of us. With a mix of rain and traffic, we didn’t arrive at our orientation hotel until 9:30 pm. As we walked up to the hotel we saw a plethora of Gringos (you have to just own it here), and I met my Co-ETAs!

Check out the travel video at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03ZU-d5ikXw&feature=youtu.be