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Published: March 9th 2007
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Florianopolis familia
The gang from the apartment in Florianopolis enjoy an Israeli dish.
L to R. Dan, Judit, (sp?), Trent & Tegan Florianopolis
Fully relaxed and recharged from our time in Iguazu, the much anticipated foray into Brazil was underway. Andy & I had met a young Australian couple Trent and Tegan, with whom we caught an early morning taxi and crossed the border into the adjacent brazillian province of ParanĂ¡. From
Foz do Iguazu (the Brazilian town near Iguazu Falls) we jumped on a bus headed for Florianopolis, the beach-island resort capital city of Santa Catarina, to the south of ParanĂ¡. Andy, who had been to Florianpolis (or 'floppy-ya-knob-at-this' as he liked to call it) was really keen to get there and assured us that we'd be enjoying some fantastic beach relaxation as soon as we got there. True to his word, Florianopolis had some fantastic beaches. We managed to organise an apartment in Ingleses Beach (thanks to a fast-talking Brazillian called Rudy that we met at the bus-station) that was a short walk to the beach itself.
Looking forward to the 8 days ahead, I promptly administered to myself the worst case of food poisoning that I have ever experienced. This wasn't apparent of course until several hours and a second meal after the offending 'pastrami' (which was in
Praia do Ingleses, Florianopolis
Popular with Holidaying Brazilians and Argentinians, Ingleses was often crowded. actual fact
raw bacon) sandwich. A midnight power-chuck and the onset of bowel liquifaction set the tone for the next few days. Unable to advance too far from the nearest toilet (and being afraid to break wind in public for fear of
'miscalculation'), I didn't end up getting very far from the apartment for four days. Thankfully, everything eventually righted itself with a few good days to spare and I was able to enjoy most of the northern beaches of Florianopolis. Without doubt, my favourite of these was
Praia do Santinho, to the east of Ingleses. Reminicient of a good Queensland beach, with decent surf and proper sand dunes instead of high-rise buildings, Sentinho is a long, wide, sandy haven of relaxation or fun.
Incidently, it was during a night out to the northern beach suburb of Canasvieiras that Andy illustrated one of the most important rules to remember whilst in south america - that is, never to presume that beautiful girls at a bus stop in a foriegn country cannot speak perfect english. I shall say no more.
In the end, Florianopolis, while a little touristy in the summer, was a great spot that I could definitely
go back to. I might steer clear of the deli next time though!
Salvador da Bahia
After some communication problems in Florianopolis, I decided to grab myself a brazillian-portuguese phrasebook at the Floripo Airport before heading to Bahia. This would prove to be a master stroke, giving me the tools to reliably say things like "excuse me", "you have beautiful eyes", and "how much is it for a beer?". Unfortuately, I rarely found the occasion to use my whole reportoir in one go.
Salvador. Without doubt a truly unique city. One of the first things I heard about Salvador was the strong African influences in food, music and culture. With a trip up to the original town centre of
Pelourinho, which overlooks the city's port, the African roots become really obvious. A crash course in the history of the town will tell you that Salvador was in fact the original colonial capital of Portuguese Brazil. The port saw the arrival of many of the original african slaves that came to Brazil, their decendents among the current inhabitants of Salvador.
Personally, I really loved the joint. And true to the chameleon within, I was generally able to
Asado... yum!
Trent was keen to have a crack at the brazillian style BBQ. Most apartments (including ours) was fitted to accomodate the occasion... go under the radar, without any hassles, all during Carnaval (this is in stark contrast to an Irishman that I later met in Rio De Janeiro, who told me that he had been mugged in Salvador during Carnaval no less than
13 times!!). Of course I was toast as soon as I had to speak and could only ask for beer or compliment someone on their beautiful eyes.
Carnaval! Now, what can be said about Carnaval? Lived up to my every expectation as the party of the year, and one of the biggest I'll have ever been a part of (howsoever small). Andy and I managed to organise an apartment with some other travellers (strangely all of them female) at pretty late notice, in a prime location. The motly crew included Sarah and Brigitte, two Aussie girls that I met way back in Santiago, four partygoing english girls (Kit, Sarah, Abby and Sophie) and a last minute kiwi inclusion in Sarah.K (yep, 3 Sarahs). We also met up with our Belgian buddy Bruno, who we met in Buenos Aires, which was great not only 'cos he was a great bloke, but because he spoke fluent Portuguese (Although rather
Pelourinho, Salvador de Bahia
Mixed in with proof of it's colonial history, the vibrant colours and african influences in Salvador are no more evident than in Pelourinho... than use it practically, in the asking of directions and what-not, he mostly used it in the tuning of brazillian girls. Bastard!).
The photos will best tell the story. Basically it was great fun for the 8 days we were there. The main party circuit, along which the street party crawled for the five main nights, was about 4 blocks from the apartment. We had our own little local party-liaison in the neighbourhood nutcase, Fabio, a guy who sold us green coconuts and beer and got into strange costumes for the hell of it, and his neighbours, Evina, Giga and Gau, who all showed us great hospitality, and partied with us during the week.
Unsurprisingly, Salvador was one great big party for the duration of Carnaval. The city is beautiful, the people are beautiful, and I was pretty disappointed to have to eventually leave. I reckon I could live there in a heartbeat, in which case, I would have to expand on my portuguese of course...
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simon
non-member comment
el fuego ....
you look as if some large predatory animal has just wacked you and is preparing to eat you ... but you couldn't care less ...lol whammo !