Upon arrival on Ilha Grande, we kept hearing about the Caipirinha boat trip. Being a fan of Caipirinhas, it's hard to find anything wrong with sailing around a beautiful island all the while being served Caipirinhas and stopping occasionally to jump into the clear and warm water to snorkel. If you manage to make it to Ilha Grande, Brazil, the Caipirinha boat tour should be the #1 action item on your list. Especially if you can get on one of the trips that has a barbeque. We sailed for about an hour around the opposite side of the island than we did the day before when we went to The Beach. All of a sudden, the boat started puttering and literally died. The ship's captain had to call back to shore and request another boat come and pick us up. We drank Caipirinhas in the sun while we waited for the new boat. None of us were complaining. As the new boat arrived, the first thing we noticed was it was significantly larger. It was probably meant for 50 people. We had 16 including our captain and shipmates including one large individual that Andrew exclaimed "That man looks like he was born to barbeque." We swapped ships and continued on our way. Another 45 minutes later we arrived at a small cove and anchored. I could see the bottom of the water looking over the side of the boat and guesstimated the depth to be about 12-15 feet. I took off my shirt and jumped in. I let myself sink for about 6 seconds and still didn't touch the bottom so I swam back to the surface. I'm going to guess now that the depth was more like 20-25 feet. We played in the water for a bit while lunch was prepared for us on the BBQ.
Then we got back onboard and had a lunch of grilled steak marinated in a salt rub, sausage, hot dogs, rice, salad, and rolls. The steak was absolutely fantastic. The sausage was also really good. The hot dog was a hot dog. Mind you we're still drinking Caipirinhas the whole time. We ate a hearty lunch then pulled anchor and sailed to another location around the island. We anchored and again jumped into the water to spend some time goofing around. Though the water was a little cooler at this spot on the island. It was still an amazing time. We got back to our hotel around 6pm, all of us well drunk, and rested (sobered) up for a couple of hours before meeting again for dinner. The only thing I could think of that would make the day more amazing would be a dinner on the beach.
Ok. Done.
We ate at a little BBQ house right on the beach with the surf 20 feet away. I don't think the temperature ever dropped below 80 degrees the entire evening. It was gorgeous. We ate, drank, and laughed late into the evening knowing that we'd have to awake early the following morning to take the ferry back to Angra Dos Reis and take a van to Paraty. Although I could have definitely stayed on Ilha Grande, I was looking forward to seeing a new locale. Ilha Grande is a breathtaking place and I'm certain my photos won't even come close to doing it justice. Just imagine paradise. The most relaxing, beautiful place your mind can conjure up. Take that image and place a title to it. Ilha Grande.
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