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You are my sunshine
Sand boarding in Floripa on the sand dunes of one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. I got stuck. Stuck enjoying the seaside paradise of Florianopolis, Brazil - Floripa as it is nicknamed. I have been here for over a week now, after fleeing Uruguay when a storm rolled in. I ran for a 9 15 bus out of Punta del Diablo, which of course didn't arrive until 30 minutes later, then broke down a few kilometers down the road. Eventually I made it to Chui, was let off to exit Uruguay, walked for a significant while with my backpack, found the bus terminal, changed money, got on a bus to Porto Alegre, Brazil, passed the entry checkpoint and had to have the bus back up along the highway, got my visa approved, arrived in Porto Alegre to wait in the terminal and found an overnight bus to Florianopolis where I took two city buses to arrive at a hostel that I wasn't even sure had space for me. It was nearly 24 hours of travel, end to end, but I was comfortable and knew that I was heading towards warmer climes.
So what do I do on the magical island, Ilha de Santa Catarina? Not a lot of anything. I go to the beach, chat
with people and drink the local cocktail - caipirinhas, which are ridiculously strong drinks that do not include any sort of mix whatsoever. Every morning I eat tropical fruit, every afternoon I swim in the sea. I turn cartwheels on the sand and jump the waves as they sneak up on me. Once I went out to eat Arab food at a restaurant with belly dancers. I watch the sunset, body board and surf with very limited success, learn names, try in vain to extricate the beach from my scalp and of course wear my Havaiana flip flops continuously feeling very Brazilian indeed. In my hostel I grow weary and irritated with hearing succinctly encapsulted what-is-your-name-where-are-you-from-where-have-you-travelled-so-far-where-are-you-going synopses, wash my clothes in the sink and wait four days for them to dry, and keep my grocceries in plastic bags with my name and date of departure on them in guest fridges full of identical bags adorned with other peoples´ information. I am working to perfect the art of telling time by the sun in order to judge when to put on sunscreen or head back after a day at the beach and hoping any day now to master the confusing language
of portunol, which is really me using spanish and hand gestures to communicate in portuguese.
This place has handily captured me with its beauty and I feel like I have been having a holiday within a holiday. I have met some amazing people, spent loads of time with lovely folks from all over the world. Last weekend my hostel took us out on a boat trip into the local lake and we all dressed up as smurfs - blue face paint went everywhere! It was a great afternoon, the caipirinhas flowing of course, with a stop to see a waterfall and everybody chatting and laughing and eating watermelon and papaya and feeling so very relaxed. I went sandboarding one day, which is a lot like snowboarding but down massive sand dunes. While I was there the host of a Brazilian comedy programme came up to me and the two British girls I was with and we will now be on Brazilian T.V. Apparently you can see it on YouTube after this Sunday - the program is called Programa Overdose. Very bizarre. Today I walked with an English guy and an Australian guy a long ways down the road and
hiked up a mountain along little trails and then descended again and jumped off of boulders by the seaside for a nice swim. Quite the adventure but rather long on the one and a half hour walk back to our hostel again.
Now I'm heading off again tomorrow, on another night bus, to pick up the pace pretty significantly and spend the next two weeks travelling with Mary-Dan. I am super excited to see her, and the Iguassu Falls of course, which will be our first stop. This break from constant movement has been very relaxing and I have partied and sunned myself and enjoyed the sea and sand sufficiently to head off again with a smile on my face and a little bit of a tan. A pretty glorious break, all told. Oh, and as something of a postscript you might be interested to know that I have finally put up some photographs of this trip on to Facebook but it was really a nightmare to do that so I can't say that there will be images on here anytime soon. Sorry! The computers I have encountered on this continent are not the most spectacular thing about it,
to say the least. I am going to keep enjoying the other spectacular things, though. There are plenty.
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Carole Leah
non-member comment
there and back
I'm interested in knowing more about your larger itinerary. Are you circumnavigating the continent? Have you noticed differences (besides the obvious language) between the countries? We don't hear much about Uruguay. Why not? Glad to hear you are safe and meeting great folks. Keep writing!