Brazilian Islands

Wow, some time has passed since I wrote into the blog. What happened? Well, we got stuck in beautiful bays and anchorages where we had no internet but enjoyed the life, the nature, talked to fish, swam and where Marcus gave me my first diving lesson. I am sure you understand that we preferred that over going to expensive places to try to find internet to be able to blog.

 (CAN'T UPLOAD MANY PICTURES HERE AT THE MOMENT! PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINKS!)

I think I last wrote from the most expensive harbor, Angra. Don’t go there if you don’t have to. Nothing to see, nothing to do, just expensive. And don’t try Bob’s Burgers, it’s horrible! Unlike Bob’s Big Boy burger in Los Angeles, those are great. 

Before Angra we were in Lagoa Azul. I think I did not post pictures from there so far. Here are some:

We stayed overnight in Angra because a thunderstorm came over us and we did not want to be out there. Noon next day, just on time, we left going back to Ilha Grande to the Bay of Sitio Forte where we stayed in front of a natural preserve beach at Ubatuba. Very beautiful and peaceful.

However we did not manage to have the bay for ourselves. We were the first ones to come in there in the afternoon, but not the last ones. Sailors are herd animals. You find one, there’ll be many soon. Oh well, next morning they were gone, but in the afternoon the next ones showed up. All Argentinans in rental (charter) Sailing boats. Just before sunset on our last evening there a nice blue sailing boat, about Alita’s size, came in. We saw 4 young girls on board, 3 men and another lady. One of the girls was standing at the anchor pretending she is doing the anchor and then we saw a huge microphone and a camera filming her. What was that? Once they had anchored the four young girls jumped off the boat and went onto a board for paddling. They paddled to the shore and played with a soccer ball, the two men with camera and microphone followed them. Of course we were anxious to find out. It did not take long and one of the guy paddled to our boat to tell us how beautiful it is. I asked him what was going on on their boat. Well, they are filming a reality series of 4 girls sailing along the caost and the live they have as such. This was just test phase, very soon they are going to fly up to Salvador and then sail down to Rio and film this tour. I guess the guy we talked to was the producer cause he told us how he managed to get the ok for that show. Besides this story I can only talk about crazy fish, around the boat. Everytime you threw a little piece of e.g. tomato into the water hundreds of fish “jumped” on it. 

And I can talk about the geese, who came to check out our boat upon our arrival and loudly ask for food. After a while and many complaints because nothing came into the water they left again. 

From Sitio Forte we went to Parati and stayed at Marina do Enghinho for one night. I used the chance to have a washing machine and dryer there so I was able to do a lot of washing and wash stuff, which we do not give away (like the pillows for guests). Fresh smell for the guests! In the evening we went to the town of Parati. It is a Unesco heritage, very beautiful and different than the other “historic town centers”. The old center has streets of copplestone (Kopfstenpflaster). It was already after sunset when we got there, so I do not have many pictures. 

Next stop was a bay of Parati-Mirim. We stayed at anchor on the protected side of Ilha Cotía. So beautiful again. 

Marcus gave me my first diving lesson there. I dived down to 4m and was able to stay in one height level.

 Inbetween all the green trees there were some yellow blooming trees, where the blossoms came off. I forgot: it’s spring time. The blossoms leave for the leaves. 

We had a beautiful star night and after dinner we sat outside in the dark. I played Marcus’ grandpa’s Echo Harp (Harmonica) – the title song of “Free Willy”. When I finished, I said: “And now Willy usually jumps out”. About 10 seconds later we heard a larger fish jump right next to the boat. We laughed out loud. That was soooo spooky. In the morning we watched some fish in their funny way of eating off the water surface. See yourself in the picture. 

Also, we had birds who used our boat (the bags under the solar panels) to rest inbetween feeding flights. That was so cute, a constant coming and going. 

Wherever we went in this huge bay around Ilha Grande and Ilha Grande itself, it’s all paradise. Here are all those pictures:
http://sailing.smichah.de/#28 

We just saw a small portion of it, but we really enjoyed it. When we left this area, we thought we’d leave to head south, where we won’t find those paradises anymore. Until we reached Ilha Anchieta, another extremely beautiful natural preserve paradise.

 It has trails on land and in water, beautiful white sandy beach and no place restaurant / bar/ pousada on land. Great. That means you can only stay overnight, if you bring your own floating bed. We did. And we were the only ones! Next morning we swam to the land, walked on the beach to the natural pools took some pictures and swam back the water trail.

A sting ray

 We had to go on to Ilhabela, but we want to come back before finally heading south to Florianopolis. 
More pictures of Ilha Anchieta:
http://sailing.smichah.de/#29 

This whole cost of Brazil is made up of wonderful green nature, rainforest and jungle (I am sure Tarzan lived here!), waterfalls and beautiful beaches, on the mainland as well as on the islands. Wherever you plan to go, you will not regret it. Looking for peace? You find it especially on the natural preserve islands, because there is not much tourism (except or the people coming with their boats) in the low season, few places to stay at land. Just don’t go in the season, which starts end of December and ends with carnival. Thank god Brazilians don’t go by outside temperature but by the season to go on vacation. Has to be in the summer. I understand, 25-35C is too cold. And the water. Can’t go swimming in 23-25 °C. At least not the locals. You find some tough Brazilian tourists, but mostly people from Argentina.

Now we’re stuck in Ilhabela because we have to wait til monday for authorities to be open- a good place to be stuck though. We need to extend our official stay in Brazil, we run over the 3 months allowed. Problem is you have to run from A to B and we hit a holiday yesterday. Thursday all we were able to do is go to the Federal Police to ask for the extension. We received a paper with which we have to go to the bank to pay the fee of 69 BRL. Only that the banks close at 3pm (!) and it was already 3:30pm (we were late because we did not know that the clock had been changed to summer time (1 hour ahead). Yes it’s spring time here. We forgot again. So now we’re hanging around here, at a boje of the wonderful Iate Clube de Ilhabela. 

 4 days for free, we will have to pay the 5^th day. Good deal for a great place.

Today I rented a luxury bike

 for two days and rode it up  to the waterfalls “Caocheira da Toca”

where people take a shower under the waterfalls. Not spectacular, but nice. Too bad I did not have bikini and towel with me.

From there I rode to the Iate Clube where I went swimming for a bit in the pool. The best part of the Iate Clube? The free boat taxi service. You call them via radio on channel 68 with their name “Delta 24” and then ask for a boat to pick you up. Sooo cool. This way I can move around freely and we do not have to worry about who takes the Dinghi when and how to arrange coming and going. Also they drive around with their boats the whole night and watch over all boats at anchor. Great security! We sleep very well ;-).  Ok, and I really enjoyed the piano man yesterday evening while drinking a Pina Colada and chatting with my friends at home via “What’s App”. 

Photos of Ilhabela: http://sailing.smichah.de/#30

The weather these days is overcast, often rain, around 23°C. It’s supposed to get better Monday. After doing the official stuff at the 3 authorities we sail off to Ilha Anchieta again for one night to continue my diving lesson and then on Wednesday, when the wind is supposed to be good, sail down to Florianopolis, a pretty german town.