Ilha Grande...the paradise island

Ilha Grande aka paradise....150km south west of Rio or 2 and a half hours in the car and 2 hours on boat...We had heard wonders about this place so were very excited about going for a break on a paradise island. Every one told us to check the weather before we went, which we did and it did say it would rain but the weather man is not always right so we took our chances and headed to our paradise island with two Ozzie gals (Tanya & Zehra) we´d met in Rio.
It rained the whole way to the boat which was supposed to be a luxury version of the ferry, it was not. It was still raining and cold on the long 2 and a half hour slow trip to Ilhe Grande.
On arrival we were pointed in the direction of our hostel, another Che Lagarto hostel just at the end of the beach...how nice to stroll up the beach to your hostel....it may have been if it hadn´t have been pouring down. So back packs on and the tide well in, we basically had to walk through the sea to our hostel.
The hostel was built for sun shine. It had a lovely wooden deck over the sea and lots of tables and chairs outside and not a lot on the in side. Brett and I had an ocean view room, which was nice but unfortunately the toilet was leaking and there were mozzys every where. I´m sure if the sun was shining it would have been a hole different experience as we have heard so many great things from all the others that went there.
There wasn´t much going on in the hostel so we headed in to town for some food. On our way we began to see some nice hotels and other hostels and saw that prices were much cheaper than ours. After a few enquiries we found we could get a hotel for the same price. We had one night at the hostel and moved the next morning with Tanya and Zehra, we moved in to a lovely hotel which had air con and heating a lovely comfy mozzy free beds. The 4 of us shared.
Most hostels have kitchen so you can cook, we had all the food to cook us up a lovely pasta dish, but as we had up graded we now couldn´t really use the hotels kitchen. We asked the lady of the hotel and she agreed, we cooked as the whole family were in there eating their dinner, we had a vegetarian spag bol and a lovely bottle of red wine. The girls were having some piercings and tattoos done, so after dinner we headed to the tattooist shop. The pain of an ear pierce on the inner lobe, a nose pierce and a tattoo was enough to prove i just couldn´t have any of that done. Tan & Z were brave girls!
With the rain still pouring we were still indoors, perfecting our card playing and drinking! We had been on Ilha Grande for 2 nights and if we were going to stay another depended on the weather the next day, it was supposed to be sunny...as luck would have it, it wasn´t it was raining. So of we headed for the 10 am ferry back to the island and back to Rio.
Ilha Grande was indeed a paradise island but definitely needs the sun to be shining. No doubt we will find sun shine and paradise some where else along the way!
We had a 2 hour ferry trip back and about 4 hours on a coach back to Rio. Brett and I headed straight back to Che Lagarto for some more fun!