For those thinking of going to Ilha Grande one day, here is what you stand to gain, if you manage to see the sun and find the right path. Pretty okay I guess:
I took my time on the way back, looking at flowers and bugs and hoping to see some kind of wildlife even though it was raining. Initially I didn’t see much, but I kept hearing chirping noises in the trees. The chatter turned out to be monkeys, dozens of them. In fact, I realized that I had heard these chirping noises pretty much the whole time I had been walking but I hadn’t once just stood still and looked up.
If you’ve ever experienced dense tropical foliage, then you probably know how annoying it is to try to take pictures up into the trees. Everything is either too dark, too fuzzy or both. Worse, trying to capture animals leaping about overhead, without a good quality camera, is nearly impossible. But after some persistence, I got this:
Not an award winner, but clearly a monkey, beating out my other hundred or so photos by factors of between 50 and 500,000. I do not envy nature photographers; that is one brutal job.
I spent the next hour walking with my eyes on the trees, slipping, and falling a couple of times on the muddy path, once almost taking out a couple coming up the hill towards me. Soaking wet and covered in mud, but triumphant with my monkey photo, I returned to town and was ready to make plans to continue on to Rio.
Ilha Grande has a lot going for it. If we had had better weather, we probably would have stayed a bit longer and tried to get further away from the main town. You can hire a guide to take you to some more far-flung areas of the island, and there are small boat tours that might be worth taking when it isn’t raining. There are a whopping 102 beaches on the island. Bird-watchers and monkey photographers will love the immense, relatively untouched national park. The down side is the cruise ships that come in every day from December to March. The woman who ran the hotel told us that May is a much nicer time to go. Although it’s colder, there is less rain and no cruise ships. The town is busy, but friendly enough and I still feel that, in spite of the down sides, it was a worthwhile stop.
One final view of the main bay without cruise ship clutter.
Next stop, Rio.
Photo courtesy of here.
I took my time on the way back, looking at flowers and bugs and hoping to see some kind of wildlife even though it was raining. Initially I didn’t see much, but I kept hearing chirping noises in the trees. The chatter turned out to be monkeys, dozens of them. In fact, I realized that I had heard these chirping noises pretty much the whole time I had been walking but I hadn’t once just stood still and looked up.
If you’ve ever experienced dense tropical foliage, then you probably know how annoying it is to try to take pictures up into the trees. Everything is either too dark, too fuzzy or both. Worse, trying to capture animals leaping about overhead, without a good quality camera, is nearly impossible. But after some persistence, I got this:
I spent the next hour walking with my eyes on the trees, slipping, and falling a couple of times on the muddy path, once almost taking out a couple coming up the hill towards me. Soaking wet and covered in mud, but triumphant with my monkey photo, I returned to town and was ready to make plans to continue on to Rio.
Ilha Grande has a lot going for it. If we had had better weather, we probably would have stayed a bit longer and tried to get further away from the main town. You can hire a guide to take you to some more far-flung areas of the island, and there are small boat tours that might be worth taking when it isn’t raining. There are a whopping 102 beaches on the island. Bird-watchers and monkey photographers will love the immense, relatively untouched national park. The down side is the cruise ships that come in every day from December to March. The woman who ran the hotel told us that May is a much nicer time to go. Although it’s colder, there is less rain and no cruise ships. The town is busy, but friendly enough and I still feel that, in spite of the down sides, it was a worthwhile stop.
One final view of the main bay without cruise ship clutter.
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