New friends

It doesn´t matter where you go in the world - it´s always the people who make a place. Even the most beautiful place in the world will seem dull if there´s no one to share it with. So this week has been better than we could ever have imagined - mainly because of the people we´ve met. We started in Ilha Grande - an island filled with tropical rainforest and white sand beaches just two hours south of Rio. And we´d only just stepped on the boat when three English girls stumbled on board, crippled by the weight of their enormous rucksacks. Pippa, Kate and Lucy immediately reminded me of my uni girls and within minutes, I hoped we´d be able to spend some time with them on the island. As it happened, we ended up in a room next door to them in a hostel with waves lapping just below our balcony. It was the perfect start. Not long after, we bumped into Jake and Gemma, who we´d met a week earlier and thrown a party with to celebrate Jake´s birthday. We were just walking along the beach when they leapt up and started waving - no doubt spotting our pale English skin a mile off among the bronzed Brazilians who always look immaculate on the beach in minute bikinis and Speedos.
So, our few days on the island were just fantastic. And to top it all, I found the most beautiful beach I´ve ever seen. It was a two and half hour walk away on an island with no cars. And we managed to get lost on the way. But when we arrived, we found a mile of silk-soft sand, turquoise water with perfect little surfing waves and nothing but rainforest filled with monkeys behind. In England, a beach this good would be packed with people and bars, but there was barely more than 50 people there and nothing more than a couple of ice cream sellers with cool boxes and a man with four surfboards for hire.
Lopez Mendes has gone on my list of top ten beaches - in at Number One - and it will take a lot to knock it off. I even managed to fit in a quick run along the beach - something I´ve barely done since arriving in Brazil - and we made it back in time to watch the Euro 2008 final, which kept Andy more than happy.