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Ilhabela is a beautiful island off the coast of Brazil. The sugar plantations that once covered its hillsides have long-since reverted to natural rainforest and it has become a desirable residence for the wealthy, and a popular tourist location.

Our ship is small enough to navigate the channel and then anchor off-shore with it’s tenders being used to ferry people to the town’s small landing jetty.

After another early start, we were transported along a bumpy path high above the town into the rainforest which is part of Brazil’s Mata Atlantica protected area. Then, led by a specialist botanical guide, we set out into the forest.

We soon came to the rock pool shown at the top of this page, with some local people enjoying the cool, crystal clear water.

We continued along the well trodden paths at a steady pace. It was much cooler than Rio, about 27 degrees, but still very humid.

The surrounding vegetation was extremely dense so access through the forest was only possible along the cleared footpaths

We heard birds singing in the high branches but I couldn’t see any through the thick forest growth, nor any other animals. But there were lots of beautiful very large butterflies, blue ones and yellow ones, also we saw one caterpillar.

Unfortunately, the butterflies have been trained to tease the photographers by flying quickly with unpredictable movement making it almost, but not quite, possible to capture their images.

Eventually, we came to a rock pool fed by a large waterfall.

Some of our group changed into swimming gear and took a dip.

Afterwards we retraced our steps along to the forest path to the coach and back to the town.

It was an enjoyable experience, something different, in an environment so different to any we might find back home, but it was a shame that we didn’t get a good view of the fauna, and that those darn butterflies would not pose for photos.

It’s a busy couple of days. Tomorrow I’m going on a bird watching trip in Uruguay, so watch this space.