2/9/2013 - Ilhabela, Brasil Adventures: Written by guest Blogger TracyGiesbrecht

Our final port destination on the cruise was Ilhabela island, which is about 210 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro.  The island is absolutely gorgeous and at first blush it reminded me of ‘the Hamptons’ of Brasil.  Gorgeous hills lined with think lush jungle terrain, an ample supply of higher end tourist stores in the town center, and expensive boats were just a handful of things we spotted rather quickly.  It was also bustling with other Brasilian tourists enjoying a weekend get-away in paradise.

Stinky Jack Sparrow

We were greeted by a Jack Sparrow look-a-like in the town center.  For a small donation  he pretended to shoot you, cut you, and posed with you for pictures.  In fact, he was so authentic that his silky shirt was smothered against his back with sweat, not to mention, his body odor was out of control. 

One has two activity options while in Ilhebela.  Hire a tour group to escort you into the jungle with a heavy duty 4 wheel drive or explore the beaches at your pace.  We chose the latter.  While exploring the beaches we stopped at several beach bars to assess the menu.  The price of the local drink of Brasil, caipirinha, is a good gauge for the overall cost of the restaurant.  Let’s just say, Ilhebela isn’t cheap, it was ‘expensive’ or ‘even more expensive’.  

Expensive as shit

During our restaurant window shopping we ran into Basil and Dan at a dive beach bar.  Dan quickly offered us the rest of his big beer for free, which I graciously accepted without hesitation.  He admitted that the partial beer he drank had him feeling pretty buzzed.  He was drying off from his swim and decided that wearing his wet speedo was unacceptable.  He proceeded to change into a dry speedo right in front of us while barely covering up with a towel.  Ummm, we saw enough of Dan’s 86 year old goodies in 20 seconds to scar us for life.  But what the hell, you only live once.