15° North are travelling again! This time we are in Brazil in premiere holiday spot, the Costa Verde. There we visit: Ilha Grande, Paraty, Angra dos Reis.
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a worldwide odyssey exploring the best places for a break around the world. We love to escape Britain to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that the globe has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re on the Costa Verde, we will show you the best things to put on your itinerary.
Make sure you subscribe: www.youtube.co....
Check out our Asia Playlist: • ASIA
Music: www.purple-pla...
The Costa Verde - or Green Coast - is a strip of Atlantic coastline in Brazil that spans between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. A premiere holiday destination for Brazilians, it consists of golden beaches and numerous tropical islands, typifying the image of Brazilian luxury.
The most famous spot in the region is Ilha Grande, which is where we knew we needed to head. There are many transfer companies that will take you across the short stretch of sea, most of which operate from the port of Angra dos Reis. The crossing takes approximately an hour.
You arrive in Abraao, the island’s only town, and you’re struck immediately not just by the island’s natural beauty, but also its complete absence of cars or roads. And with the island measuring 193 square kilometres, getting around means that you either go by sea or on foot.
Trekking through the jungle is quite an experience, especially because it’s decidedly not flat. You get to see a wealth of flora and fauna, including monkeys, birds, very large spiders and... well... snakes...Well we saw one snake. But let’s just say she wasn’t small. She slithered away as soon as she saw us, but she was big, she was long and she moved very quickly. This is the kind of snake that would be measured in metres, centimetres.
You basically travel from beach to beach as you cross the island. All of the beaches facing the mainland are calm, quiet and cute. With trailing palms, quietly lapping waves and boats bobbing in the bay, this is the kind of picture perfect tropical islands that you see in the movies. And walking barefoot across the sand is exactly what we came for.
The beaches on the other side of the island are somewhat different however. If you’re a fan of surfing, then this is where you need to come because the waves coming in directly from the Atlantic Ocean are really quite substantial.
After trekking across the island, we were not up for making it a round trip, so thankfully there are water taxis that run every half hour or so from all the main beaches back to Abraao. Just make sure you check when the final ones of the day run. Because trekking through the jungle after dark would be... a challenge... let’s put it that way.
One of the main reasons Ilha Grande has not become more developed is because the island was owned by the government and used both as an offshore immigration quarantine station and as a prison. Once these had both closed in 1994, its potential as a holiday resort was fully realised. It does seem pretty hilarious that Brazil used to consider sending people here a severe punishment, but now coming here is one of the most desirable spots in the country.
We spent three days on Ilha Grande, but if you really want to see the whole island you’ll definitely need longer, just to give you plenty of time to see all the beaches. And even climb the mountain at its centre, which is over 1000 metres tall!
Back on the mainland and we’re really excited to visit Paraty. In the late seventeenth century, the sleepy Portuguese colonial village suddenly boomed following the discovery of gold in the mountains inland from the town. Swiftly becoming the port for this industry, a town grew quickly on a grid system, which is mostly unchanged today.
So why did the gold rush boom end? Pirates. The beaches and coves of the Costa Verde were home to some of the world’s most notorious pirates and the ships, laden with gold and bound for Rio, were often attacked by pirates and their booty stolen. So all the talk of pirates on tropical islands with buried treasure... That’s here.
So when the gold trade died, people stopped coming to Paraty and the town became cut off from the outside world. And because nothing was built here for centuries, the old colonial buildings remained untouched, leaving behind one of the few remaining complete old towns in all of the Americas. It wasn’t until a paved road was built nearby in the 1970s that the town was rediscovered once more. And now, it is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
8 окт 2024
