I'm in Love With Ilhabela!

I'm in Love With Ilhabela!

Bill and I were up early so that we could go to the lounge by 8:15 to begin our tour.  I don't think I mentioned this before but there are 995 crew members on board and less than 800 passengers.

The waters are so calm here that getting on the tender was no problem.  We were the last two on and then it took off for the shore.  Our guide walked us over to our tour bus and we were off!

Today's tour was night and day different from yesterday's.  Our guide, who was 27, spoke excellent English.  You could tell she loved what she was doing and also knew a lot about this island.  Ilhabela is the largest island in Brazil.  You could see the mainland across the water.  Lucky for this small village, you have to take a ferry to the mainland.  Of course, some people want a bridge to be built, but I think it would spoil the area.  The island population is 42,000 in the winter, but in the summer they estimate it could be 5 times greater.  However, we didn't see anyplace crowded and there are also no other cruise ships here.

Our first stop was a church.  It had some beautiful artwork inside but I thought the outside sculpture of Jesus on the cross was amazing.  It was done by a local artist out of reclaimed materials.   

We were shown the old prison which has now been converted to a museum.  Then we took a drive down the main street to see some colonial houses.  These now must be preserved.

The road followed the coastline and we learned that the forest on the island is protected.  The villages are along the coast.

Here's some more sculptures by the same artist that did Jesus on the Cross at the church.  We were sitting in the back seat of the bus, so I didn't get great photos and do wish we could have stopped for a few minutes.

We were happy to see Tara and Shawn, the English couple that we meet in Rio on the Christ the Redeemer tour.  This is their first cruise and they are from England.

Our first stop was at a waterfall and bird sanctuary.  Victoria told us the island has 365 waterfalls, one for every day of the year.

Our next stop was at another waterfall.  As we left the bus we were told to stop and get some citronella for mosquitoes.  I was glad I had packed our hiking sticks.  The walkway went straight down and then you walked on large rocks.  It was gorgeous, but a strenuous climb back up the hill.

The owners of this sugar cane farm gave us a demonstration of how they make cachaca.  They are the only place on the island where this is allowed to be made.  It seems that sugar cane ruins the soil and the government does not allow it to be grown.  The family that bought the farm back in 1957 has continuously occupied the farm.  They have now turned it into a culture farm and they are allowed to distill a small amount of cachaca.  They use all parts of the sugar cane.  One part goes into making the drink, the other part that is at 60% alcohol is turned into a cleaning product and the last of it is used in fertilizer.

We walked around the village after the tour.  It was very clean and the people were very friendly.

After returning to the ship, Bill and I finally found a little time to put on our swimsuits and go up on the deck to hear the music while we soaked in the pools.

I had my days mixed up and thought tomorrow was a day at sea.  It's a good thing our tablemates straightened me out.  When I got back to the room, I checked my tickets and sure enough we have the first tour of the day tomorrow.

Turtle Safely.........