What a ride. It took us 48 hours almost… and it really isnt that far. We looked for routes and blogs about getting from Iguazu to Ilha Grande and there didn’t seem to be that much information which was very clear. That is mainly because there is no direct routing as Ilha Grande in Brazil is not really a main city or on a main artery. We chose the cheapest route from Iguazu area which involves travelling from Argentina through Brazil to Paraguay, this knocked off a good hundred pesos.
So… incase you are wondering and looking for how to get from Iguazu in Argentina to Ilha Grande in Brazil then follow these steps. Go to the bus station and ask at the Crucero del Norte bus station for a Cama seat unless you don’t want to sleep. Getting a Cama seat does not mean you will get great service like you get elsewhere in Argentina, in fact using Crucero Del Norte is only advised as they have a service that is cheaper than the Brazilian buses. We asked for a cheaper option and were presented with a trip from Paraguay which involves getting a bus from Iguazu through to Paraguay bus station which is a local bus and does not always leave you time to get your passport stamps. We took this option but without the bus, getting a drop off at the Brazilian/Argentian border. We didn’t wait for the bus, so we walked for around five kms and it was good exercise. When we got to the next border post, the actual brazilian one we stamped in, and waited for a bus. A few came through and they were all full so we had to get a cab which a border guard called for us. It was not too cheap, but it took us to the Paraguay/Argentina border which is very busy, and the total cost was still less than getting a bus from Brazil or Argentina for us both. We stamped in, which you must do to get an exit stamp… We witnessed a fair bit of corrupt behaviour with the border guards on the way out, so get the stamps coming in, and have your consultate number handy… It doesn’t matter what the locals say or the border guards say, get the stamp for entering the country as otherwise they will find excuses to make cash demands.
Our onward trip was usual for latin american countries, chaos rulling the duty free area around the border, so we haggled with a taxi who wanted ten dollars for a four km cab ride. We refused point blank and eventually he agreed to a five dollar charge, I think our skills picked up in Asia were well remembered…
The bus station was a total dump as was the city, and with two hours to kill and intense humidity, we stayed put and ate some homecooked gnocchi with chicken, very nice. Eventually, the bus arrival time and departure time came and went and a huge thunderstorm turned the carpark into rivers and lakes, with the wind whipping the rain off the bus tops. The reason for the delay with the bus were known to us, the only border crossing with Brazil which we had walked across earlier moved at less than walking pace. When we did finally get on the bus we found our seats being used as a platform for the cleaner who was packaging the rubbish and I wasn’t too impressed. We watched him use his shoe to shove the rice on the floor under our seats and I asked him to clean it up properly in my poor spanish. He ignored me and told me to put my bag up rather than under the seat… I was not impressed as he pushed past with the rubbish. After that I headed downstairs to complain and got a lot of bemused looks from the drivers who and other staff who basically all had no intention of cleaning up. As the cleaner came back and signed off the “cleaning” record I interjected and asked him to clean up properly. The bus then reversed out and I lost my rag completely. At this point one of the drivers finally agreed to come up and have a look at the situation. He didn’t want to clean it up either but we then had some help from a fellow traveller who in pretty stern tone told him it was entirely unacceptable and he should clean it up. I can only say, with Crucero Del Norte firms that they run a decent network, but our experiences with them in Buenos Aires and here left a piss poor impression. Avoid them if you can.
The bus journey was delayed by 3 hours at the border so our time onboard increased by three hours to 20 hours of travel. Joy. After a freezing night on the bus to Sao Paulo we arrived at one of the largest bus terminals in South America, pretty impressive with around one hundred bus stops it is a pretty busy place. Above the bus station we found the ticket offices and got ourselves sorted out with some breakfast and onwards tickets. The next bus was expensive.. but it was a lovely bus and was scheduled to take a mere seven hours. The roads and infrastructure in Brazil are good, but the winding roads around the incredible scenery is timeconsuming, but with the mix of films, stops every two hours and very comfortable seats we managed well. Our bus tickets were for Angra which is where we were to get a ferry from. Arriving in Angra, we spoke to a Chilean girl who had been travelling from Chile to come to Ilha Grande, and she heard that we could get a late night ferry from down the road, so we hopped back onto the bus and an hour later arrived, jumped into an old VW transporter and got ferried to the port. Then we found out the ten pm boat was a myth… 30 hours on the road… There isnt much in the way of accommodation… so we had to make do with a pretty horrible little place for a little too much money.
The next morning the first ferry left at nine and took an hour, at fourteen Reais it was fairly reasonable we thought, the weather changed as we left and the rain pissed down and the wind lashed us. Out the window were absolutely huge oil tankers waiting for access to the filling station and the boat went pretty close so we got to inspect them a little better. They are amazing, huge tubs with rounded fronts so they look like massive bathtubs. We learned later from a french engineer that some of the platforms in the area have two kilometer deep pipes to the filling stations which is pretty amazing too.
The island was a site for literally sore eyes. The picturesque town and the beaches with the mountains in the backround, even in the rain was the end of the epic travel we had… I’d like to say endured, but it wasn’t tough at all. Just a lot of sitting down and very annoying idiots/high prices to contend with. After our luxurious and very relaxing travel around Argentina and Chile, this was a rude awakening and shock to the system, yes we found ourselves back to shit services for too much money where everyone seems to think their job is beneath them. MT
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