Lopes Mendes Trail - Ilha Grande

Last day on the island.

I woke up super excited, I wanted to enjoy every second of my last day in that paradise, so I hurriedly had breakfast and then set off to discover more beaches, or rather, to return to the beautiful beaches of Ilha Grande.
I took a speedboat to get ahead, as at 5pm I had to be ready to get back on the last boat to Conceição de Jacareí, so although it was a little more expensive than the sloop, the time saved was very valuable!

It's also possible to leave Abraão via trails, but from Abraão to Palmas takes an hour on average and you'd still have to go to Pouso beach and then another trail to Lopes Mendes! I shortened the process by going straight to Pouso by speedboat, since that's the closest point we could get to by boat, Lopes Mendes is on the other side of the island in open sea.
We soon reached Pouso beach! It's not a bathing beach and the local dirtiness frightened me, a lot of plastic and garbage on the shore, it wasn't like this four years ago when I went.

A new trail

I decided to explore a different trail this time, the idea being to get to know the island in all sorts of ways. I discovered that there is a trail that almost nobody knows about, following the trail from the Castelhanos Lighthouse. As it is a gigantic trail that takes around 7 hours (round trip), I didn't even dare to wander along it and maybe that's why I hadn't discovered this other access, but talking to local people, I ended up discovering this path.
The traditional trail takes around 25 to 35 minutes and goes up and down to Lopes Mendes and Praia de Santo Antônio, but pay attention to the signs to get to the beach you want.

Since the traditional doesn't always appeal to me, let's take the other trail! All flat and MUCH longer, you can follow my steps along with the video.
We passed some less dirty beaches, the further away from Pouso, the cleaner the water and sand again.

Alligators in Lopes Mendes?

I walked, walked and walked! I saw signs warning of the presence of caimans, heard frightening noises and jumped many times, scared to death of the animals that were crawling through the forest, making more suspicious noises, two of them almost climbed on my feet, but at the same time it was very cool to discover a new place!

I ran and shouted and we were going to walk some more? An hour and nothing, until I heard the sound of the waves and now yesmmm! One of the most beautiful beaches in the WORLDOOOOO, let's go, it's a regular feature of all my trips to this beautiful island! Iupiiii.

There's one more tip: DON'T BUY WATER THERE, a one-and-a-half liter bottle can cost up to 10 reais, that's right! Water in the middle of nowhere is worth gold, so let's not give in and not take this gem with us. Canga on the ground, things put away, water taken and it was time to cool off in a delicious dip in crystal-clear water at just the right temperature, neither hot nor cold! A delight.

We stayed there for hours until the clock reminded us that we had to leave, but not before climbing the rocks and showing off the best view of the beach. This is the best place to see the entire expanse of white sands and crystal-clear waters, which are far from any buildings.

Lopes Mendes traditional trail

We went back along the traditional trail and with plenty of time to catch the ferry to Abraão, we decided to go to Santo Antônio!
A very shy, small and deserted beach, hardly anyone follows the trail hidden by the leaves and ends up leaving this paradise behind.

Rocks, sand and a strong sea made the place different from other beaches. I particularly love this place and I think the preference came from the lack of hype and people in the place, I love something more exclusive, I made the most of the time I had there and then returned to Palmas.

I got to the beach MUCH faster and there were still about 15 minutes to go before the speedboat returned, so I sat there and missed the trip that wasn't even over yet. From there I went straight to Abraão, ran to the pousada, showered, threw everything in my backpack and when I saw it was 10 minutes before the sloop left, we were going to run? Uffa there was time, I put my things in a corner, sat down and said goodbye to another perfect trip, I can't wait to get back, when will it be? See you on the island.

Have you been there? Did you know about the second trail to Lopes? Incredible scenery awaits you, it's worth going there.

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