Dan and I woke up this morning with the same two goals in mind: change pousadas and find sun. Despite having spent a week in Rio, we had not yet properly basked ourselves in vitamin D. So after we made an (ever so slight) upgrade to our accommodations, we dressed the role of sunbather and headed out of our room.
Upon talking to the manager of our pousada, we learned that the run-down main beach we had arrived on was far from the main attraction of this island. In fact, we discovered that Ilha Grande boasts 86! beaches in all. The town, which is basically the only inhabited part of the island, sits apart from these hidden treasures so as to preserve their quality. The manager told us that to get to the truly beautiful spots, we would have to take a 2-hour walk through the island.
Because we had gotten a late start to the day, Dan and I opted for a closer destination. The path to the beach we had selected was well-marked, but not entirely smooth. To get there, we alternated between walking on beaches (some of which were no more than 20 yards wide) and through the jungle. To my inner explorer's delight, the jungle was complete with tall bamboo shoots, anthills up to our waists, and a whole new breed of monkeys to befriend.
After about a half hour, we arrived at our chosen beach. The ocean there was shallow and clear, but the beach had only a limited supply of dry sand to lay out on. Even still, we enjoyed the beautiful weather and water, and lounged the day away.
At night Dan and I explored the town a bit more, which is actually much bigger than we had initially thought. Once we tired of walking around, we landed at a kebab restaurant and indulged in some meat and red wine. We also strategized for the following day, and planned to wake up early so that we could get a better taste of what other enchantments this island contains.
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