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Published: February 17th 2012
Florianopolis
Walk to remote beachFor all the beach bums out there, you´´ll be turning a darker shade of green when you read this. We have just finished exploring the southern parts of Brazil, and this is what we can say about it:
Our first port of call was Florianopolis, or as all the locals call it, Floripa. There is really only one thing to do there and that is go to the beach. And once you have visited the beach, you move on to another beach. And then another. So, when it rains, issues arise (as you will read about later). As we cannot consider ourselves rotisserie kind of people (turning round and round to roast yourself evenly), we actually had to find something to do. We took off on a short hike over one big hill to a relatively remote beach (to which most people get to by boat). The tropical heat had us sweating with the first few steps and took us back to Colombia´s tropical hiking days. We made a concrete decision on that hike, that we will never live in tropical areas - too hot, too humid, too many bugs and too many diseases! The hike was nice, but the
Florianopolis
Cocktails served freshly made on the beach. water surprisingly cold.
We spent the next day on another beach, but this time it was even hotter than the day before and it seemed like the entire city was on the beach. Do Brazilans actually work??? Good question, we have not quite figured that one out yet as everyone seems to be on holiday. This beach had it all - while in the horizontal position, you could buy sunglasses, dresses, bikinis, churros, beers (drinking on the beach, and anywhere else for that matter, is perfectly legal), roasted cheese, fruit salad, choripan (pork sausage in a roll) and even a freshly made cocktail! We had a swim or two and enjoyed walking around. And so our days were spent relaxing between the hostel and the beach. Our sunrise surf was a bit of a flop for various reasons: 1) they bus refused to allow us on with a surfboard that had no cover! how absurd! Phil eventually sacrificed the towel around her waist to half cover the board 2) we arrived at the beach long before the sun actually rose and sat at the busstop for an hour waiting for it to rise 3) the waves were choppy and
Blumenau
Department store the sea cold 4) it was overcast and rainy so never saw the sunrise. But it was a nice walk back!
We then decided to go off the beaten track and visit a small German town called Pomerode. We caught the 2:30 bus to the main bus station (15kms away) to be in time for our bus at 4:15. Only problem was that it was raining and everybody had decided to go to one large shopping mall, which lay on the same route the bus took. We spent 1.5 hours in the bus, ran to the terminal and managed to miss our bus by 5 mins!!! Very upset and angry (especially Phil), we booked a ticket to Blumenau instead, a large German town. We arrived at night, with no information or maps. We got on a bus to the centre of town, scouting the area for hostels of any kind. The bus driver and assistant recommended Hotel Sao Paulo as it was cheap. Well, it was so cheap we found out later that you could pay by the hour!! We scurried inside, ignoring the looks of the guys in the bar next door. We paid far too much for
Blumenau
Municipality a terrible room, the door didnt close properly, nor did the windows, nor the bathroom door when using the toilet. We ended up barricading the door with a mattress and a backpack and praying a lot. Dodgy would be putting it lightly. Phil couldn´t wait for the night to end.
We survived : ) We took to the streets the next morning, wandering around Blumenau, passing an Oompah band, and looking at buildings and the beer museum. The people are very friendly though. After a swift visit, we moved further north to Curitiba (where our accommodation was FAR nicer than the previous night´s), our stop over before catching the train to Paranagua.
The train ride was relaxing and pretty. We meandered through the Atlantic rainforest, listening to our entertaining old lady informing us in broken english about the region. There was also a film crew on board so she had to do a couple of retakes for them. We arrived 5 hours later in Paranagua and walked straight into a big carnival celebration. The entire town´s male population was dressed in drag and everybody was rather cheerfully inebriated. After a very funny, slurred conversation with 2 carnival goers,
Train Ride
Quick view stop we took a boat to the little island of Ihla do Mel (Honey Island), but only once the captain and his mate finished their beers.
Ihla do Mel is a real gem. People only started living there 20 odd years ago. There are no roads, transport or banks. Goods are carried around by pushcart and the 'roads' are simply the sand that has always been there. The roads wind between the houses and amongst the trees. They do have an interesting judicial system there: all the weed smokers get made to clean the police quarters at a certain time each week, where the townspeople then gather to laugh at them. So we are told by Alice, the slightly strange, eccentric but friendly middle aged lady we rented a room from. We loved the island. We took long walks and explored, we swam, relaxed and played yahtzee. Despite the fact that it rained a LOT, we managed to time our walks well so that we missed the worst of the downpours. We saw the portuguese fort, a large cave and the lighthouse.
Yesterday, we said a sad goodbye to the relatively undiscovered island, and headed back to Curitiba, where
Train Ride
Valley views we squeezed in a visit to The Eye, an art gallery in a rather interestingly designed building (see pics). This is the same architect (Oscar Niemeyer) that designed the buildings in Brasilia (we visited this city at the start of our South America trip).
We have now come full circle as we prepare to make our way home. We are back in Sao Paulo and fly home in 2.5 days time. But first.... its carnival time!!!! More on this on Sunday though.
Highlight:
Phil and Marco - the island
Lowlight:
Phil and Marco - missing the bus and ending up in a dodgy hotel in Blumenau
What we miss most:
Phil and Marco - our own set of wheels!
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wil-ke
non-member comment
Last days
Enjoy the last days and have a good flight back to RSA. Regards