The sunrise is absolutely gorgeous today as we make our way along the coast up to Ilhabela Island. 

We arrive right on schedule and we are in the Cabaret lounge waiting for our tour (shiver) to be called for the tender.  We booked a Mata Atlantica Nature Trail hike with ShoreEx today, thinking we should probably get fairly active people as the description says strenuous.  Yeah, well.  We all make it to the tender (there are actually 2 groups on this tour!) and meet the guide on the pier, where immediately 2 people start asking the guide if the walk is strenuous.  Um, yeah.  Read the damn description in the tour brochure!!!  Our guide Pablo – who is adorable – tells these 2 ladies that it isn’t bad; when asked if it was flat, he replies “Mostly.”  Whatever.  We’re here, we’re hiking.

Onto the bus where it takes a crazy long time to get up into the State Park and wildlife refuge.  Everything here is oriented toward the beaches, and we have to drive all the way down to the commercial zone of the island before making our way out into the hills and the forest.  We are hoping to meet Mark and Gayle for lunch, but we’re wondering just when we will be back to Vila, where the tender docks. We’ll see if we make it.

At the forest everyone runs for the restroom, while I take pictures of all the informational signs – and find one that outlines the trail we will hike, Trilha da Agua Branca.  Once he has corralled our group, Pablo, who is a State Forest volunteer and loves being out in the wilderness more than anything else, shows us a map of where we are located now and explains that we will be visiting 3 waterfalls today on our little hike.  Then he takes us off into the forest at what could only be described as a slow ambling walk.  But it was still pretty nice – oh – and not flat. At all.  Seriously steep right out of the gate.  Along the way, Pablo will stop and point out different fauna and flora and explain the different aspects of the vines and trees surrounding us. 

It takes barely 10 minutes to reach the first waterfall, Poco da Pedra, literally translated as pit of rocks.  Probably more like pool, but still.  And, well, yeah, it is a pit of rocks.  Just a little tiny streamlike waterfall and a great swimming lagoon area where people are swimming and sunning on the rocks.

After some explanations about the rock formations, we begin our climb through more of the forest, we pass all sorts of cactus growing out of trees, bromeliads attached to trees and these dark brown/black squirrels that totally ignore us as we wander by.  Pablo jumps off the trail every so often for some explanation or another – this time he is talking about the indigenous tribes beating on the side of the trunk and root structure of this particular type tree to send signals out to other tribes.

Onward we march toward Poco da Escada, the ladder.  It does sort of look like a ladder flowing down the rocks and into the swimming pool lagoon area.  Would probably be very refreshing if we were so inclined to jump in – because it is hot and sticky out here, meltingly so, and to make it worse we have on long pants and long sleeves because of the rising Dengue fever problems here.  Ugh.

The other group actually meets us with us here – they went to Da Ducha first, then circled back.  So our two groups sort of merge while Pablo explains something or other about the trees, then as we are leaving the other group goes to the water and one guy actually gets in to swim.  Yeah buddy!  I’m with you there! You can dry off on the way down. 

Soon we are once again on the trail heading deeper into the forest.  Even though it has been rather strenuous (lots of steep trails, steps and other obstacles) most of the group has kept up so far, which is a bonus.  On our way to Poco da Ducha, the shower, we encounter a mass of downed trees and vines.  Oops. But have no fear, Pablo to the rescue!  He agilely hops over the fallen tree and starts to bushwhack his way through the vines and limbs that are blocking our path.  This ain’t no hike for the faint of heart, let me tell you!

Once he’s cleared enough space, he helps us crawl over the huge tree, then we have to stoop and duck our way through the limbs and keep trekking up a really steep hill to the waterfall.  And of course we are in the lead with another younger couple, heading up the trail, because we sort of know where we are going.  Pablo is way behind yelling, “Wait for the guide, wait for the guide!”  The 4 of us are cracking up!  Like we could get lost. 

Da Ducha turns out to be one of the best waterfalls – it is off in the distance, but it is definitely like a shower and would be great to climb under right about now!  And yes, I did take my long sleeve shirt off after a while because I was about to have heat stroke. I double lathered up with our good Indonesian bug spray though. 

Back under the trees and vines, snapping pictures of the bromeliads as we go, over the fallen tree and all the way down to the ranger station we go.  As we are exiting the trail and waiting for everyone who needs a restroom break again, the young couple looks at us and says, I thought this was going to be a hike.  Yeah well, read the room – or ship, as it may be – sweetheart! 

Then it is back to the bus for the ride to Vila, which is faster than the ride up to the forest.  Pablo narrates the whole drive back, telling us about the different villages we pass through, about where everyone lives, how a village of fishermen live along the coast of Ilhabela and have to walk 14 km to get to the nearest store if they can’t go by boat.  He talks about the little islands off the coast, one of which, Ilha Victoria, has a population of 20 people and 200 cats!  Full of knowledge and full of fun!

We drive by the Fish statue roundabout, dedicated to the fisherman, because that is what started the island. Then we pass the sculptures created by Gilmar Pinna on the edge of the Engenho D’Agua beach that he has dubbed “Passion-Walking in love, union and justice.”  There are 46 sculptures in all, made of stainless steel, depicting everything from International justice hearings to indigenous ceremonies, to ancient warriors to the stations of the passages that Jesus traveled on the Path to Calvary. A great display – too bad we can’t stop the van to take better pictures!

Arriving at Vila, Pablo and the van drop us off in front of the Church of Senhora D’Ajuda, which we plan to visit after lunch, then we wander the teeny little town, looking for a place to eat.  Unfortunately, it is still early for Brazilian time, so some restaurants that look appealing aren’t open – or don’t look like they are – so after circling the town (literally 5 blocks long and 2 blocks wide) we end up at the first place we looked at, Alecrim. We settle at the outdoor table, and order Shrimp Risotto (Ed had wanted Octopus, but they don’t have any and risotto is obviously a big thing here – it is everywhere!), fish filet with French fries and rice and of course beer and wine!  We dug into an excellent meal, accompanied by a salad (nice) and some sauce and what looked like breadcrumbs.  The sauce turned out to be hot sauce, we are assuming for the risotto or fish, the breadcrumbs? Who knows! It was great regardless.

By this time, Mark and Gayle have gotten off the ship and are trying to find somewhere to eat. We had told them to come to this restaurant, but they end up at another one.  Mark sends a picture of the street outside and we proceed to scour the waterfront looking for the place, only to find out it was the first restaurant we had looked at, but it looked closed so we kept on going. Bummer!  There was a lovely outdoor seating area and live music – and the food was excellent, if not super expensive!  But hey, beachy tourist town, what can you expect?  At any rate, at least we got to have drinks with them, and Brian, the super sweet bar server was there as well. So it was absolutely wonderful to hang out with the 3 of them outside the ship and just be ourselves together.

After our drinks, we wandered the town a bit, while Mark, Gayle and Brian went back to the ship.  We decided against going into the church, the outside was pretty enough, and instead went next door to the maritime museum, where we wandered through fascinating displays about all things maritime, including many exhibits on the Principe de Asturias, the luxury liner that shipwrecked on the rocks off of Sao Sebastiao Island (that is the official name of the island, which is actually the Ilhabela archipelago, thank you Pablo!) on March 5, 1916.  They have loads of artifacts saved from the wreck as well as tons of explanatory displays and pictures.  Plus a huge timeline of all the wrecks off the coast of Sao Sebastiao.  Obviously a dangerous passage here between the islands! Well worth the visit.

Then it is back to the ship, afternoon gym and then to secure our table for White Night. Fortunately Deck 10 is set up and we have our 2-top in the perfect location for viewing and skedaddling after we finish eating!  The buffet was, eh, not the same as it used to be, that’s for certain.  Sure, lots of choices, but nothing special or spectacular like days of old. No salted halibut, no special local foods, a whole lot of sushi and sashimi, which was fine for me – but precious little else of real interest.  Sigh.  We did our usual, ate, watched a bit of the band and were back in our cabin by 7 something and watching movies and Netflix the rest of the night. Hey, works for us!