Just Desserts

Pictured is the odd looking peak that overlooks Abrao. It reminds me of the once volcanic plugs of the Glasshouse Mountains north of Brisbane (QLD, Australia).

After such a big day of exercise we were tired & very hungry. We got a quick meal at a place around the corner from the hotel. We figured that with all the exercise we were entitled to raid a desert cart. Desert carts are a Brazilian thing. They load up a small cart (usually attached to a half bicycle) with cakes & a seemingly endless array of deserts. The vendors park themselves somewhere prominent & do a roaring trade. I was still hungry after that & hit the ice cream shop. We hadn't gone near the scarce ice cream opportunities available during the trip because of the digestional risks involved with dairy in Peru & Bolivia. It was good ice cream too!

It took no time to fall asleep after such a big day.

Circling Birds

We made it back to Abrao after a leisurely 50 min cruise from Enseada Palmas. At times we were shadowed by Frigate birds amongst others. During most of the day you could see hundreds of them circling above the island with the vultures. They looked like a swarm of insects (see photo below).

Squirrel

This was not the animal I'd expected to see in the South American Jungle near a troupe of Tamarin Monkeys. Apparently squirrels are as much at home in Brazil as they are in Canada & the US. So many times on the trip the knowledge I thought I had about animals of the world was challenged & proven way off.

Common Marmosets

We (Kerri, Nic & I) decided we should leave Lopez Mendes or we would have been walking the whole 3-1/2 hours back to Abrao (in the dark for the most part). We had to meet a boat at Enseada das Palmas on the other side of the last ridge. Corina & Sandra and the late arrivers decided to stay for a bit to do some sun worshiping.

Just after we left the beach, I heard a chirp that wasn't familiar to me & didn't sound like a bird. Kerri & Nic kept going but I stopped for a while to listen again (I've become quite the wildlife spotter since the Canadian adventure). Sure enough, the trees around me were full of these cute little Common Marmosets. I ran up the track & made Nic & Kerri come back.

We watched this troupe of about 20 Common Marmosets play in the trees around us for around half an hour. They seemed more interested in us that we were of them. They even had a very young one with them, but they took it way up into the top of the tress when we got there. They're only little monkeys with the largest male (pictured left) having a body no more than 8 inches long but have have the most amazingly long stripy tails. Needless to say, there were no shortage of photos.

We totally missed the boat we were targeting but managed to catch the following one.

Brown Gannets

It wasn't just the penguins that had my attention with their fishing exploits. This pair of brown gannets was also busy catching lunch. They were doing the whole spear dive into the water & emerging from the depths with a fish.

Fishing

I took my trusty camera with me onto the rocks (at some risk to the camera mind) to take some shots of the penguins. This one came right up close to the rock & even caught a nice fish right in front of me. Doesn't he look proud of himself? And yes he did swallow that fish that's way bigger that his head although he did struggle with it a bit.

Magellanic Penguins

Here's the culprits I was talking about. They are Magellanic Penguins & we saw 4 of them at Lopez Mendes. They're not quite the same as the Humbolt Penguins we saw on the West coast, but very similar. The also carry Brazillian passports instead of Peruvian.....

They didn't seem at all bothered by our presence & were quite happy going about their business even though we were less than 10m away from them.

Lopez Mendes

3-1/2 hours & 3 steep, slippery climbs after setting off from Abrao, we finally made it to Lopez Mendes. It's quite the nice beach. It nice & wide with fine white sand & clear water.

We donned sunscreen to avoid a repeat performance of the Trinadade sunburn from a couple of days previous. Then we hit the water for some more body surfing. As it turns out, we weren't alone & I don't mean the randoms in board shorts. If you look to the right of the people, you'll see a small head in the water (see the next post to find out the culprit).

There was a group of our travel buddies that were slow off the mark that morning & opted to take the boat around to Enseada Palmas instead of hiking like we did. They arrived not long after we hit the water. It was like a family day at the beach back home.

Enseada Palmas

The trail down the hill was treacherous. It was so steep & slippery. Eventually we made it down to the next small bay around the island from Abrao called Enseada Palmas.

We weren't done yet. We still had a fair way to go. There was another small ridge to scale to the next beach & bay before the climb over the final ridge to Lopez Medes.

Abrao Lookout

Day 44 - Lopez Mendes

Despite some advice against our idea, a small band of us (Sandra, Corina, Nic, Kerri & myself) decided to hike to the big beach on the ocean side of the island (Lopez Mendes).

We set off after breakfast walking past the hostel we'd been to the night before. The trail became quite steep and was very slippery thanks to the wet weather. It was nice walking through the lush rain forest. At the top of the first ridge the trees opened out (I think maybe because of a fire) and we caught this view back to Abrao. We could see all the way back to the mainland.

Aqueduct

We'd seen this Aqueduct from near the lookout point peeking over the forest canopy. It once supplied water to Abrao. It was such a strange thing to see in the middle of the jungle.


Not far from the aqueduct we followed the track around a little way until we saw a side track to the old jail. It was right on the beach & buried under jungle. It was used for quarantine for some time as well as a jail.

We stopped there for a bit and had a swim. Nic was there already & a few of the others appeared not long after we arrived.
The weather started to look ominous again so we set off for the village.

That night we went to a dodgy looking restaurant that had some wonderful food. The rain bashed down at times while we were there. After dinner we headed to a hostel near by to catch up with Polly who'd left us in Sucre. We found her eventually, but not until after the rain found us first. Kerri & I didn't stay long. I guess we're a bit over smoke filled noisy places.

Natural Pools

A little further up the trail we came to the natural pools. It looked inviting enough, but we were a little short on time.

Lookout Point

Not far along the loop track the incline started to increase. Within a short while we were well above the sea. Even at that height we had a pretty good view of the bay & back toward the mainland.

Short Hike

Later in the afternoon the grey skies cleared allowing us to go for a walk/hike near Abrao. We managed to get a map of the island from a tourist information booth so we had a pretty good idea where to go for the afternoon. So we set off for a short loop track that started from the village and followed the shoreline for a short while.

Humming Birds

Ilha Grande is a haven for humming birds. The front garden of our hotel was a magnet for these busy little creatures. Aside from the huge hibiscus tree, the owners have a number of humming bird feeding stations hanging around the yard.

The Black ones are called Black Jacobins & the blue & green ones are Swallow-tailed Hummingbirds. The Black Jacobins are extremely territorial & the resident pair spent half their time chasing off intruders.

Abrao

The boat trip wasn't overly rushed or rough. It was kind of nice just kicking back & watching the world go by. You can see our boat above. By the time we reach Abrao (the main village on the island) the weather was threatening to turn very wet but we did manage to get to our hotel relatively unscathed.

Angra & Ilha Grande

Day 43 - Travel to Ilha Grande

We were on the move again reasonably early. We had to catch a public bus (pretty much a council bus) to the next port called Angra (pictured above). It's a much bigger town than Paraty and a bustling industrial port.

Once we reach Angra, we boarded a timber boat similar to the ones we'd seen in Paraty. After some stuffing around we were finally on our way to Ilha Grande (Big Island) pictured below.