Blog: Ilha do Miel

We hadn´t intended on making Paranagua a long stopover, and upon arriving realized that there was no need to make it one. Despite being on the Atlantic Ocean, the beaches had long been taken over by a massive shipping port and the waterfront promenade was a strip of rundown and empty buildings. I was prepared to give up and move along to Florinopolis, but we were intrigued by the sight of several backpackers boarding the boat to Ilha do Mel. “The Island of Honnies” Stewart proclaimed, and with that one simple (and slightly altered) translation, we were convinced and boarded the next boat. We arrived in Encartas, one of the two villages on the island and were greeted by Marcia, who speaking as much English as we spoke Portuguese, and set us up with a pousada that fit our budgets. This place was amazing! During summer and Easter the place fills with a young party crowd, and the rest of the year is a laid back retreat from the mainland. We arrived during the laid back season and couldn’t have been happier. The “”””roads”””” that wound through the town were sand covered paths and shoes were definitely optional. All of our worries about leaving Brazil quickly vanished on this island, and considering how laid back this place was it was hard to believe we would ever leave. We spent the first 3 days at the beach, which was a short 10 minute meander from our hotel, and our nights enjoying the largest Caprihnas we have come across since our arrival in Brazil. Our 4th day we decided to hike across the island to visit the other village, and the two “”””tourist”””” sights, the lighthouse and the fortress. It was a 7km hike each way, but it was overcast and we felt it was our best chance to make the trip. The “”””sights”””” were what you might consider “”””very lame””””, but the journey definitely overshadowed the destination. We arrived back at our hotel exhausted, and to our surprise Marcia – the lady who found us the hotel – was there, and invited us to play drunken bingo with the locals. By this time the overcast had settled into a storm, and as we walked the sandy paths to the beach the lightning began to strike in full force, illuminating the island every 3-4 seconds and setting an amazing ambience for our bingo adventure. The night was capped by winning a massive duvet, and being “swindled” out of a 5L bottle of Wine, and by the end of the night we went home and passed out.

Paradise could not have been any better than Ilha do Mel, and it was one of those places you could have spent weeks wasting away the days with very little ambition. Unfortunately the weather turned in the wrong direction, which brought us out of our daze and back to the reality of backpacking; it was time to move on. We said goodbye to our getaway and boarded the only transport off the island, and made the sad journey back to the mainland, and in turn, the long journey out of Brazil.