We flew south to Rio 
and then a four hour transfer down the coast to a small fishing village called Picinguaba.
It´s a really beautiful coast where some of the last remaining parts of the Mata Atalantica – the Atlantic rain forest – follow the coast on high, and 
strangely-shaped mountains covered in swirls of cloud. The uplands look across bays of islands and long beaches. Much of it is very beautiful and reminds me of pictures of green-covered coastal mountains of Hawaii or the South Pacific.
We´ve gone to a small boutique hotel called Pousada Picinguaba. Herbert Ypma – who came up with the whole hip hotels thing – has it as one of his favourites in South America and there´s a feature on it oin this month´s Vogue (OK, the Brazilian edition).
It has a wonderful setting, with a view over this bay. Still a small and genuine fishing village, it´s hemmed in by one of the protected parts of the rain forest so it cannot get bigger.
It´s an old villa of high ceilings, wood and antiques. Some of rooms are basic and windowless (and cheap) but we´ve got the suite; a remnant of when we were going to bring a friend with us. There are two rooms, two bathrooms and a huge balcony with a hammock for GBP80.