Day 5: Ilha Grande

Up at 8am this morning for a quick brekie & down to the dive center to pick up our gear for the day. We had a 60mins boat trip to the north side of the island where we saw the famous blue lagoon & they on to the first dive site at a ship wreck. Wreck diving is usually only for PADI certified divers but they brought Ro down as well to even up the number.

There was 9 divers on the boat plus 2 dive masters, a camera diver & a deck hand. 5 of the group were spainish & one of the lads has a mother from Cork! 4 went down on the first dive while the rest of us snorkeled on the surface. Visibility was an amazing 30m so we could see the whole wreck from the surface. After lunch we passed another famous dive spot on the island - a helicopter wreck! They on to a small island where the rest of the group dived. We went off for another snorkel while we were waiting & the waters were full of life. We spotted tonnes of different fish, eels & even a sea turtle which is extremely rare to see. The dive was even better we got to see & pet an octopus which got scared by all the divers & shot it´s ink!

Just as we got back on the boat to head back a small peinguin swam up around our boat, I thought they only existed in the North Pole!

Joe