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Published: December 27th 2005
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Hello! Hope everyone had a very good holiday and soon a great New Years!
We have just spent the last 8 days in Barra da Lagoa on the Ilha de Santa Catarina. The island has loads of beaches and depending on what you are looking for you can usually find a beach to suit your needs. The beaches to the north have calmer waters and more development, the beaches to the east are great for surfers and tend to be cleaner and have a good mix of small fishing villages and developed vacation towns. Then heading south you find gorgeous beaches and less tourism but perhaps rougher water.
John and I chose to spend the last eight days in Barra da Lagoa. A small fishing village on the east side of the island. We had originally thought we would stay in a guesthouse while here but we had heard that there were always apartments that could be rented which appealed to us after a couple weeks of having to eat out most of the time. At the bus station when we first arrived we headed to the tourist office who introduced us to a man who told us he
had an apartment for us two blocks from the beach in Barra which is where we wanted to be. He said he would take us and show it to us. Hmm...at this point after all my years in Peru a strange man offering to take us to a town 20 km away for nothing just seemed odd to me and a bit sketchy. But I also really wanted an apartment close to the beach! So we decided to take our chances and got in the car with him. As we were leaving town he asks 'do you want to go to a bank the apartment owner will only take cash´...hmmm....now I was convinced we were being had. So I said no and if we liked the apartment we´d go back for cash. Anyways, the whole thing just seemed a bit slimy but once we arrived at the apartment which was indeed two blocks from the beach, was spotlessly clean and then met the landlord and his entire family we knew we wanted to stay there. And you couldn´t beat the price. It was cheaper than anywhere we had stayed in Brazil! So, I am happy to say that it all
worked out really well.
Typical for us as we arrived in Barra the sun disappeared and the rain set in...the rain had followed us! It rained the first two days we were here...grrr...
After those first two days though the sun came out in all its glory and John and I proceeded to spend the next couple of days lying on the beach. It was great. Our days developed a nice pattern of eat,beach,eat,sleep,eat,beach more beach...you get the point. For those of you who know how John is I was seriously worried that he would not be able to sit still in one town for eight days just enjoying the beach. But guess what?? He was the laziest I have ever seen him and actually sat still for hours at a time!!!
Anyways, after several days of living such a relaxing life we started to feel guilty that we hadn´t explored more of the island. Up until now our excursions had taken us no farther than the next beach over called Lagoa da Conceicao. It has loads of restaurants, shops and nightclubs. The Lagoa itself is a great place for families as it´s a salt water lake
that allows for you to play in very calm shallow water for hours.
So finally one night as we were waiting for a pizza we met a really nice and very high Brazilian hippie. He kept asking us where we had been while on the island and then started mentioning all these beautiful places we had to see. We felt so bad that we had not explored more. So with travel advice from the high hippie we set off the next day on an expedition to explore the south of the island. It involved long waits for buses and a few bumpy bus rides but we saw some beautiful beaches and had a nice time getting out of our little town for a day.
We were also here for Christmas Eve which started out a bit sad as the town seemed pretty dead and we weren´t really sure of what to do with ourselves. We decided to take a walk and happened upon a small pub called the ´Chill Out Lounge´. It was open so we decided to go in for a few beers. The bartender asked us where we were from and when I mentioned I had
been raised in Peru he told me that he and his partner both owners of the pub were Peruvian!!! They insisted we stay at the pub to celebrate Christmas with their family and friends who were coming by. In the end our Christmas Eve was spent with a load of other people having a great time eating paneton and drinking caipirinhas.
Today is our last day here. We are very sad to be leaving Barra da Lagoa. It has been a really great place to chill for the last eight days. Having said that we´re ready to move on see new things and tonight we head out on a 15 hour bus ride to Foz to see the waterfalls. More soon!
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giacomo
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la buena vida y la poca verguenza!!!
Hey guys, you both look so relaxed!!! maybe we have to start looking to buy a house in brasil and move there, I could stop working for the rest of my life, and just survive fishing all day at the beach. Sounds good, Surfing, fishing, nice... John, I am impresse4d with your sandboard moves, looks fun!!! Be good Giacomo