On Saturday, December 20th we were in Ilha Grande, meaning Large Island. It is a small, cute island. It sits near Angra dos Reis Bay with some 360 islands. It looks very much like Hawaii with Atlantic rainforest mountains not far from the shore. It is an island that allows no cars, nor any electric vehicle or bike (except for a few government vehicles). This side of the island has electricity with a very long extension cord under the sea from the mainland, but the other side of the island has no electricity. The island is known for its many hiking trails- from short to those that take several days.
There is a small but bustling village, Vila d Abraao, along the coast as you come across on your tender. It’s a real hippie place with many people walking barefooted along the way. We loved that is is safe. People leave their bikes unlocked—no one will touch it. Our very helpful guide, Mateo, moved here from Rio 4 years ago and loves the pace and will never leave. He says there are 5000 people that live here and they live a very chilled life.
Like much of the Atlantic coast, the settlers cut down the ingenious Brazilian tree to make red die from boiling the trees. The cleared forest was then turned into sugar cane fields. That has now been eliminated so now along the seashore there are now secondary forests, while the rest of the island has primary forests. On 5 July 2019, Ilha Grande and Paraty were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ilha Grande and Paraty are contained within the 12,400 hectares (31,000 acres) of Tamoios Environmental Protection Area (APA), created in 1982. The main island (and APA) contains the Aventureiro Sustainable Development Reserve, created in 2014 from the former Aventureiro Marine State Park, which was integrated with the Praia do Sul Biological Reserve. 62.5% of the island is covered by the Ilha Grande State Park, giving a total of 87% of the island protected status.
It reminded us of what we thought Koh Samui would have looked like 30 years ago before it’s development, even more so than Buzios.