This took us via Curitiba, and the memorable mountain train (where we met Tom Cruise :)) to a little village called Morretes. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but officially somewhere in the Atlantic rainforest, we found a Pousada where our room was a lovely little jungle cabin, seen here with the boys and Chico, one of the owners dogs. He liked fighting lizards.
There were some trails where you could go off in search of wildlife on your own steam and this gave the boys a chance to refine their map reading skills. The trails were fun, although in the moments after Louis encountered a giant flying rhino beetle thing, (which he promises was the size of a plate but no-one else saw it) he would probably disagree.....
One evening the boys noticed this spooky looking moth on the door, which looked like it had a skull emblazoned on its back. Fortunately thanks to our our moth-loving friend David whom we met at Regua, we can reveal that this is in the genus Caviria, within the family Lymantridae (tussock moths), a more informative definition than our "scary white moth."
The kind owners, Nicolas and Lucca and their family, would even bring us a delicious breakfast on our little balcony, from which Frankie will remember munching on a hibiscus flower, which I suppose might have constituted one of his “five a day” on that particular morning.
After Morretes, we headed for the coast and following a couple of hours on a boat, found ourselves on Ilha do Mel, a delightful little sandy island with no roads or cars, just sandy paths. We took advantage of an offer of help with our rucsacs on our arrival, although I don’t think the poor chap appreciated it when the boys jumped on the back too!We stayed at a little pousada we’d read about, in Encantadas, one of the two “towns” on the island. It's owned by Serge and Helene, a kind and welcoming French couple, famed for their crêpes. As soon as we said that word when contemplating the accommodation options as a family, there was only going to be one choice! It also gave the boys a week to practice their very rusty French skills on a mostly voluntary basis. (No French? No crêpe!)
We enjoyed a relaxing week with some lovely white sandy beaches, where we celebrated Jules “Far Away Birthday”, went on some long coastal walks around the island together, and even managed to continue with the boys Holiday School a little on most days.
This included a “Games afternoon” on the beach, where we played long jump, and the boys did some running races of various lengths. We’ll spare you the “Chariots of Fire” slow motion film version that the boys are planning to make. The boys also enjoyed yet another hammock, and indeed the company of a friendly little dog called Whisky, whom, as we reported elsewhere, whilst being blind, loved chasing his tennis ball, and had perfected the art of balancing on it with his front paws. Not something necessarily likely to get Esther Rantzen reaching for the phone to the BBC, I'll admit, but cute nevertheless. Curiously, he barked incessantly whenever anybody sneezed.
There was a great little spot, at the tip of the island, where you could watch enormous container ships passing through, on their way from Paranagua, the second biggest port in Brazil. It was a nice peaceful place for reading together too. You had to navigate along this narrow labyrinthine path through trees and bushes to get there. One day, in the pouring rain, we were at our pousada and heard the funnel blast of a passing ship. We decided to see if we could race the 1/2 kilometre to get to the spot to see the ships before it passed by. We just made it, but must have looked a bit daft in the process.
After a week, and copious quantities of pancakes, both savoury and sweet, it was time to leave behind Ilha do Mel and move on.
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