SUN DESTINATION

Grande Relaxation

By Randall Shirley

If Rio’s got you all samba-ed out, this historic slice of tropical heaven off the Brazilian coast, where the parrots sing and the sand squeaks between your toes, can be your vacation from your vacation.

A big difference between you and Brazil’s worst criminals: They wanted to get off Ilha Grande, while you’ll want to stay forever. Until 1994, Brazil’s largest island was home to one of the country’s most notorious maximum-security prisons. Today the 194-square-kilometre island is among Brazil’s wild and historic treasures.

Amazingly, Ilha Grande is situated within 100 kilometres of Rio’s 8 million people. While you’re trying to find a word to describe the impossible blue of the butterfly that landed on your knee, one of the world’s most frenetic cities is pulsing with energy an afternoon’s ferry ride away. The perfect place to nurse your Rio hangover, it feels so close, you’ll think you can still hear the samba music; that’s the paradox of this sublimely peaceful nugget of rainforest and sand.

Most of the island is blissfully untouched, with a handful of government trucks and machinery remaining the only concessions to modernity. The island’s beckoning attractions – pristine lagoons, mountain peaks, a historic aqueduct still in use, the prison ruin and 106 sublime beaches – are all accessible on foot or by hired boat. At Lopes Mendes Beach, the sand actually squeaks under your feet, but that’s just the beginning of the sensory overload. Lime-green parrots screech, and adorable marmoset monkeys threaten to plunder your snacks while you’re distracted by the mountain vistas. It’s the Copacabana of ecotourism.

You’ll need to walk 16 kilometres to explore all the remains of the Dois Rios penal complex, but it’s a worthwhile trek. There are no services between Ilha Grande’s main town of Abraão and the prison area, so carry water and a decent lunch. The prison was closed and torn down in the mid-1990s, but enough of it remains to give you a good idea of its remoteness and shockingly gorgeous setting. It must have been a special torment to peer through the bars at the surrounding tropics and magnificent beach.

Abaão, with its 3,500 souls, provides most of the services for travellers. There are several excellent restaurants, including the beachy Café do Mar, with nightly barbecues, and the more upscale Dom Mário. Most of the island’s accommodations skew a little basic, appealing to backpackers and weekend refugees from the city. Sagu Mini Resort is the more luxury-oriented exception. A 10-minute walk that crosses two small hills and three beaches takes you to Sagu’s elegant (if hammock-strewn) digs. The balconies have mesmerizing sea views, the staff is friendly and attentive and the Italian-ish restaurant is surprisingly refined. If Sagu is outside your budget, the modest Pousada Tagomago also boasts gorgeous views of the ocean.

(For writer Randall Shirley, Vancouver is pretty close to paradise, so he managed, though narrowly, to pull himself away from Ilha Grande at the end of his visit.)

TOP IMAGE: INGRID TAYLAR
COAST: JOSH STEINITZ / NILEGUIDE.COM
PRISON RUINS: FERNANDO SILVEIRA
STREET: RODRIGO SOLDON