We woke up a little confused in the morning since all of our watches and
devices were showing the wrong time - turns out it had been daylight savings
time but no one told us. Before we figured this out we played it safe and went
with the later time so that we would no miss our 9:30am boat that was taking us
around the island for the day. We headed down to grab a quick breakfast at the
Pousada before heading to the boat, when someone who works at our hostel
approached us and told us that unfortunately our tour company had to cancel our
boat for the day since the waves in the ocean were to big that day- she said
that the company had a few other options for us, so we grabbed our things and
quickly headed over there. After hearing
out options we decided to shop around a bit and see if any other tour operates
were doing the around the island ride. Quickly we found one who was and decided
that the other tours boat driver was probably just hung over and didn’t want to
drive the boat for the day so we took our refund and hopped in with the other
boat. Turned out to be the best decision we could have made because we ended up
on a great boat with Giovanni, our guide with a great sense of humour, for the
day on his 16ft Bow rider.
Most of the people on our boat opted to sit in the back to get some shade,
J.J included since we has nursing a mean burn suffered the day before at Lopes
Mendes beach, so that left the entire bow of the boat for Jonny, Kait and I.
The itinerary for the day included about 10 hour ride around the entire island,
stopping at about 5 secluded beaches that were only accessible by boat, 2 Lagunas
for snorkeling and 1 lunch stop. We headed pulled out of Abraao beach port
around 9:40am setting off for the about 45min ride to the first beach and very,
VERY quickly realized that maybe the other guy wasn't drunk - these waves were
HUGE! The first side of the island that we go around is open water and at this
time of the morning the waves packed some punch - especially compared to the
size of our boat. I was starting to think we had signed up for a roller coaster
ride as well. We hit a few waves that made the 3 of us in the front catch some
air time before banging back into our seats. Somewhere between our laughs and
the terrified look on my face, Giovanni found it quite humorous and kept
repeating to us "Tranquillo, Tranquillo" meaning no worries the waves
are calm. We all had a great time keeping this routine going for the first half
of the day, until the waves started to calm down around the 4th stop or so.
I would try and describe all the incredible beaches and Laguna’s that we
visited for the day, but there is no way that I would be able to capture the
true beauty that we got to experience at each of these serene, relatively
untouched spots so instead I will just share some photo's
After spending the full day living like kings on this boat - I could really
do this everyyyyyyy day, we hit our last stop and started back towards the town
just as the sun was setting. It was the icing in the cake to the magic,
carefree day we had just spent - getting to watch the sun go down into the Atlantic
from the comforts of our private boat. I could never play favorites on this
trip, but this day definitely would be near the top of my list of favorite days
we have had so far and is certainly and experience that I won't forget for a
very long time.
When we arrived back into town Kait and I decided to do a little bit of
shopping and the boys headed back. Surprisingly this is NOT something that we
have done a lot of yet, so we strolled through the narrow side streets, peaking
into the various beach spots before heading back to the Pousada to get ready
for dinner. We had decided to go to this place called the Kebab House that was nearby,
keeping up with our whole meat on a stick streak. When we go there however we
found out that here on the island a "kebab" was actually a Burrito.
It was delicious all the same and after our Burritos and a couple Brahmas we
headed back to get some sleep before heading back to the ferry the next day -
Off to Paraty!
OOO_Talia
these pics are amazing. hate you.
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