Floripa and Mole Beach

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Florianopolis, Brazil (March 12-21)

Having had several friends visit and swear by it, I had to make a visit to the beautiful beach resort of Florianopolis, located south of San Paolo on the island of Santa Catarina off the coast with some 40 beaches. I had struggled for some days on whether to hit the beach life of Brazil again or do more cultural tourism through Argentina and Bolivia... I guess one last week on teh beach sounded appealing and several of my friends have claimed it´s close to paradise.

After arriving late Tuesday, I spent the next morning negotiating a cheap car for the week and driving some of the island to figure out where to stay. The northern beaches of Ingleses and Santinho looked nice but filled with families. I got lost, well kinda on purpose, but did find Praia Mole and Joaquin near the Centro Conceicao where the heart of Floripa was. While I was trying my spanish-portugues negotiating intercambio, I met 2 other americans, Jim and Tracie and hit the beach with them, where I also found the Cris Hotel- both inexpensive and located on the best surf beach. To boot, we found out there was a big surf competition that weekend.. and Jim was set to celebrate his birthday that night, which we´d carry on for a few days to include St. Patricks Day. This was clearly one of the nice resorts of Brazil and has had quite a bit of press lately. In that sense, there was much more tranquility around the beach towns, similar to Buzios, and without the chaos of Rio.

It was the perfect time to visit Floripa as the main tourist season was over but the weather was still good, about 85, and there were still enough people around to make it interesting.. And I got to have Acai every day again. I quickly learning that Joaquin was the surfer beach but Mole is the place to lounge' more people, more services and more to do- so I spent many an afternoon there. Jim and I even had a few Skol to celebrate the day of the Irish, Brazilian style, on Mole. At night we found Centro Conceicao was the focal point of restaurants and bars with surprisingly good live music. Ahhhh the caparinhas went down easy, even if the electricity shuttered on and off sometimes. Some of the better places of note include Confreria des Artes, Lattitude 27, and El Divino.

These were my last days in Brazil and a great way to remember it. The people are passionate about life- soccer, their country, joking, partying, dancing.. it's a great way to live life. In what I have seen in south america, they have the most diverse people, dating back to the colonization by the Portugues and the importation of slaves from Africa along with the indigineous people. Their music even today is heavily influenced by the tribal rhythms brought over from Africa. And while I didn't get to the north, I have heard the beaches and scuba-diving there is incredible; guess I'll have to make it another separate trip.

However, it also seems that there are big social problems throughout the country as they struggle to integrate so many cultures. Danger seems to lurk in certain areas and the politicians and police seem to not be able to do much to stop the trouble. But I have to say, it's a beautiful country that has a tremendous variety in the physical geography allowing a tourist to enjoy the jungle of the amazon along with the beaches throughout.

It was goodbye to Brazil and on to Columbia, Peru and Bolivia!

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