Era uma vez | Ilhabela | Green Hostel

The Verde Hostel Ilhabela's trademark logo is this friendly backpacker better known as windbreaker (Enyalius iheringii), one of the common lizards in the state of São Paulo and a resident of Ilhabela. Elected the new mascot of Green Hostel Ilhabela for being one of the guardians of our forest.

In particular, the lizard has a meaning of abundant life and resistance, as they manage to live in many different places and yet they are always on the rocks sunning themselves and always alert.

In other cultures the lizard also symbolizes friendship, benevolence and reason , characteristics necessary to live happily and relaxed in the day to day of Green Hostel Ilhabela.

This creature has the ability to expose itself immobile and prolonged to the sun, symbolizing a contemplative ecstasy and superiority before other terrestrials. In the bible, the lizard is mentioned as the sage among the sages.

However, the lizard also symbolizes humility, depth, the search for light and spiritual evolution . The lizard also undergoes many changes throughout its life, representing a natural evolutionary process, which is part of the life of all of us.

Every year, the lizard sheds its skin, but under the thick armor that is formed throughout the life of the lizard, as a mechanism of self-protection of its body, this is its essence, which does not change.

So, so are we. In this measure, the lizard symbolizes protection and renewal .

The origin of the name "Green Hostel Ilhabela" is the reason for a joke that happened in the republic that Gabriel - founder of the hostel - lived in São Paulo, which was called Green House .

After Gabriel decided to leave São Paulo to live in Ilhabela and open his own hostel, the first name that his friends and former republic partners indicated was Green Hostel Ilhabela .

And as the name refers to nature and sustainability, Green Hostel Ilhabela was the baptismal name of this place that today is considered one of the best hostels on the island, receiving twice the title " Excellence in Quality " (2017 - 2018) from TripAdvisor.

Why Ilhabela?

Since my childhood I felt that something called me in Ilhabela, the times I spent holidays in Caraguatatuba where I traveled with my family, from there I could observe this beautiful and gigantic green mountain range.

I felt that Caraguatatuba was not exactly my favorite place as a beach, I found it very urban, chaotic, with a lot of people, and from there I looked at Ilhabela and always thought to visit it one day. I imagined that there was paradise, with exuberant nature, clear waters, calm sea and small fish swimming around.

But it was only on two occasions that I had the chance to be in paradise while I was still a child, but memories were definitely recorded in his memory because everything he imagined was real.

Over the years, I became more independent and started traveling on my own, often to Ilhabela, with that the admiration only increased and each day I was more sure that it was there that one day I would live.

So when the idea of starting a hostel came up, in the planning process it was not difficult to decide where this venture would take place, Ilhabela.

What is a hostel?

The hostel concept emerged to break paradigms in tourism and make it more accessible for people of any class and race. Because staying in a hostel is synonymous with economy and learning. Because you will be sharing a room with people you have never seen anything in your life.

Some people may believe that there is a certain danger of being with people they have never seen in their lives. But is isolation out of fear really the ideal solution to make the world safer?

The spirit of a hostel is:

respect
friendship
economy
meet different people from all over the world

When you step into a hostel for the first time and notice that everyone is treated equally, it brings down the masks. In addition, this proximity allows people to know and respect others .

Want something richer than that?

What motivated the creation of the Verde Hostel Ilhabela

Dissatisfaction was the main agent of the decision to leave conventional life and start a hostel.

Before, he worked at one of the biggest national banks, had an excellent salary, was recognized professionally, worked with cutting-edge technologies, but he felt he was wasting his life.

He spent a lot of time in front of the computer without feeling the sun pass over his head, in a gray and frantic metropolis, doing a job whose result only contributed to widen the social gap that exists between him and the people, a job that was not necessary. fact a positive consequence.

It was then that things started to change ...

At first, I didn't know that running a hostel was what I wanted to do. But first I knew what I would not like, which was to continue living as I did.

I wanted to change my life, to move to a place in the middle of nature and where people did not only think about work and money, but who really knew how to enjoy the beauties of that life.

When I was fired, due to a drop in productivity, I only later realized that it was my unconscious saying that it was time to go the other way.

Then the decision came!

I decided to put some things in a backpack and go on a trip. I spent 3 and a half months traveling between hostels and campsites. During my journey there was a passion for the hostel, and there sprang in my mind the seed that today became the Verde Hostel Ilhabela .