Ilha do Mel - March 1st

Besides sitting on the beach, swimming or surfing, there are only three things to do on Ilha Do Mel, visit the Enchanted Cave, the Lighthouse, or the Fort.  Not wanting to overreach ourselves we have decided to visit only one of these items on each day we are here.  Using the logic of going from south to north, like our South America visit overall, we decide to visit the cave first, as well as the rest of the south of the island.

Our hotel is in the middle of the island so to get south we must first walk down what is effectively the main street on the island, which is a sandy little lane covered over by vegetation.  As there are no cars on the island the only traffic you might encounter is a bicycle or a wheelbarrow.  It is a very pleasant walk to the first beach going south, Praia Grande, which as the name suggests is a large beach.  We walk the length of the beach, about a kilometre, passing about 10 people, before we realise that to get further south we will have to climb over rocks.  This leads us to another beach Praia Miguel, which has only 4 other people on it.  So we stay on this beach for some sunbathing and swimming before heading on.

The following beach requires no rock climbing, just a steep hill, but this gives us great views of the island.  We don’t stay on this beach for long; we just walk the length of it to the cold drinks stall at the end as we need a cold drink.  From here we progress to the cave.  It is not a very impressive cave so we don’t actually stick around long.  Instead we move to the other side of the island to the village named after the cave, Encantadas (which means Enchanted, the cave is supposed to be where a mermaid once lived) and again we stop for a drink as it is very hot.

Because of the rock climbing any thoughts of staying on this side of the island for dinner have to be cancelled as we are not going to be able to get back in the dark, so we head back to our little village, Nova Brasilia.  But on the way back we do stop for more sunbathing and swimming on Praia Grande.  Just as we go out for dinner a massive lightning storm begins giving us a great show, and a fair amount of rain, while we eat, but amazingly we manage to walk to the restaurant and back without getting wet.