Take me down to the paradise city...
...where the sand is white and the sun is shinning !
Hello people. We´re back in Buenos Aires, in front of our PC to tell you about the last few days. Last time we updated the blog we were about to leave Rio. Well, we took the bus on Wednesday at 10:00 and left the hostel where we were starting to feel at home. We had our first glimpse of the brazilian landscape on the bus. There are a lot of hills and forests, it´s very wild and the coast is simply stunning. 
We arrived in Angra dos Reis, a small village which main attraction is the port, at mid-afternoon where we took a boat to Ilha Grande. We sailed for about an hour aboard a magnificent two-mast boat, sunbathing and enjoying the view of the many islands in the bay. Upon arriving at the port of Ilha Grande, we met a man advertising for a "Pousada" ( the local hotels) who really looked like a brazilian : long dark hair, tanned, stocky, dark eyes...the stereotype of the Capoeira man. I´ll tell you about the Capoiera later on. We did not get the chance to say anything, the first words coming out of his mouth where :"Salut, vous cherchez une Pousada ?". OK, as you guessed he was French and he knew straight away that we were French too. I don´t know how (do we look French ? ) but he did not even try to speak Spanish or English. Anyway, we had found our Pousada and we were delighted to have found a french fellow on this island.
As you can see the Pousada, was gorgeous. Very clean, built in a colonial style, with plants everywhere and nice paintings (the owner is an artist). We chatted a while in the patio with William (the French guy) who told us about the history of the island and also how he ended up on Ilha Grande. It´s a long, incredible story that I´ll sum up in a few lines : He was working as a broker, very serious, with a suit , huge responsibilities and a good salary in Paris. One day, he had the opportunity to go to Sao Paulo on holidays with a friend of his. He stayed there for a few days, then went to Rio. He fell in love with a Carioca and decided not to return to France. He left his job, sold everyhting he had in Paris and stayed in Brazil. Unfortunately it did not work out with his girlfriend and he left Rio for Ilha Grande. He met the owner of the Pousada where we stayed, who also organises boat trips. The owner needed money and William helped him financially. This was 2 years ago. He owns 50% of the company now and has learnt Portuguese since. When you see William, with his dark skin, long hair and tatooes, it´s hard to imagine him as an executive with a suit. He wouldn´t leave his island now. Destiny is destiny...
Back to our story. We spent the following day on the island. It´s a paradise. Heaven on earth. The nices
t beaches ever, no cars, nice people and good food. It´s peaceful and quiet. You can take long walks in the jungle or go to the beach by boat. If we hadn´t had our plane tickets for Friday we may well have spent the rest of our journey there. The guide mentions that the most beautiful beach in brazil is Praia Lopez-Mendez on Ilha Grande. It´s on the other side of the island. We decided to walk there through the tropical forest. It took 3 hours, walking through the jungle with only one stop at Praia Las Palmas for a little rest and a refreshing bath. Of course I had forgotten my bathing-shorts, (this kind of things happen when you wake up too early ! ), and luckily enough I had two pants...and an hour later we were in Praia Lopez-Mendez, the surfer´s paradise. To be honest, Praia Las Palmas was as good and I would say better since it was less crowded and smaller. Nevertheless, Praia Lopez-Mendez is breathtaking. That day was very 
sunny and hot, we had to stay in the shade and take regular baths in order to survive the burning sun. We could play with crabs and we had great fun in the waves. We were knackered but happy. Strangely enough, the sun sets very early, at about 5 pm. 
Therefore, we had to take a boat at 4:30. 40 mins ride ( no way we would walk back !). It was the best day so far. In the evening we went to see a Capoeira school practicing on the docks. Capoeira is a dance-like martial art invented by the brazilian slaves who were not allowed to learn how to fight.
The next day, we woke up at 5 am as we wanted to go the beach before taking the boat at 08:30. No luck. It was cloudy and we decided to go for a walk to see some ruins nearby. As we crossed the village a huge rottweiler followed our steps and accompanied us all the way to the ruins and back to our Pousada. I 
must admit I did not feel very comfortable given that I´m a bit afraid of big dogs and above all that he jumped on Carole when she crouched to take a picture and then on myself. He did not really jumped but rather tried to...well...you know...as if I were a female Rottweiler ! I thought : " Just let him finish, it´s no poodle, you can´t merely kick his ass :)" but I pushed him gently and explained I already had a girlfriend and he wasn´t my type anyway. I did not really enjoy the rest of the walk that morning but soon it was time to catch our boat and we broke free from this unwanted bodyguard.
The cloudy weather made it easier to leave Ilha Grande. There isn´t much to do when you can´t go to the
beach. We took a boat with a hungarian couple we had met at the "Misti hotel" in Rio. They had arrived a day before us. It´s funny the way you meet people somewhere and you keep seeing them again in other places. We took a bus together from Angra to Sao Paulo. The Hungarians were catching another bus to Iguazu. The bus arrived at 7:30 pm and started looking for a hotel. The girl at the tourist information counter gave us the address of the Western Hotel, close to the bus station, as we needed to catch an early bus to the airport the next day. Of course, it was very dear but there were "no other hotels close to the bus station", she said. Strangely enough, we found an other hotel, half the price of the other, not so clean but good enough for a night .
On the 28th we reached to the airport at 09:00 am, 2h30 in advance. We did not expect the plane to be delayed but we actually spent most of the day at the airport, waiting. The plane was delayed 3h30 ! No compensation, free lounge, vouchers or anything as it was less than 4hours delay. The plane landed in Buenos Aires at 07:30 pm instead of 03:30 pm. Carole rang our friend Aude as we´re staying at her place in Buenos Aires. Aude said she had a few friends over and they were waiting for us to go to the restaurant. So we decided to take a "Remis" (a taxi that you pay in advance) much faster than the bus. We went to the exact same counter as we did 20 days ago. We talked to the same girl, and surprise ! the driver was the same bad tempered man as on our first day in Buenos Aires. He did not seem to remember us but started grumbling, again, when we gave him the address. Strange deja-vu...
The time to have a shower and a glass of wine at Aude´s appartment with her friends, and we were at a "Tenedor libre" restaurant. You pay 16 pesos, plus the drinks and you can eat as much as you want ! I looooove those restaurants ! The food was quite good, mostly grilled meat and we spent a very nice evening. Another good opportunity to practise our Spanish. Aude´s friends are very nice and they told us about the history of Argenina, Evita, politics and the argentinan way of life. According to a famous argentinan writer (I forgot his name) the argentinan is : "An Italian who speaks Spanish, who thinks like a French and wishes he were English". Aude also taught us a joke about argentinan people : "Do you know how an Argentinan commits suicide ? He jumps from the top of his ego". As you can see, we learnt a lot about this country...
The following day, we woke up late (12:00) and wandered in Recoleta, a district with a nice Sunday 
market. We tasted the "Churros" with chocolate and filled with "Dulce de leche". We also wanted to visit the graveyard where Evita´s buried. Unfortunately, we arrived too late. It was already time to go home and eat Gnocchis (potatoe pasta). It´s a tradition here. They eat Gnocchis on the 29th of each month. Donno exactly why. It must be some kinda symbol, like it´s the end of the month, you don´t have much money left so you eat gnocchis. A surprise was awaiting us at Aude´s appartment : the first three episodes of "LOST" season 3 ! Yeeeaaaaaah ! We watched them until 2 am. Great ! We should get the 4th episode today. I can´t wait !
Today cleaning day. We gave our clothes to the laundry, we have to change our Reales in Pesos and think about the rest of our trip. All we are sure of is that we´ll head south.
Thank you for reading all this. It had to be long as we did not have access to the internet on the island. Thank you also for the comments. You´ll hear from us very soon. Bye !