Honeymoon day 14: Florianopolis

South America » Brazil » Santa Catarina » Florianópolis
November 27th 2012

Published: November 27th 2012

We spent 7 days and 6 nights on the island of Santa Catarina - fondly known as Floripa. It has been everything we hoped it would be and more. We rented a car, and through the course of the week were able to explore many of the island´s 42 beaches, the lagoons, points, and fort. When we weren't exploring, we were at the beach 100 feet from our apartment. Classic honeymoon times.

But like much of our trip so far, our first few hours on Floripa were kind of rough.

We took an overnight bus from Sao Sebastiao. The seats were nice but they didn´t lie all the way flat, so neither of us got the perfect night sleep. Our plan was to find an apartment to rent for 5 nights (we extended it to 6) at one of the many beaches on the island. We had a couple leads through email but nothing solid. We figured we could rent a car and figure it out.

At the bus station we were greeted by a very friendly tour guide named Paulo who claimed he had some beach front apartments he could show us - quite a bit cheaper than we were looking at online. Paulo had a badge, and the tourist office at the bus station said they are trustworthy, so we figured we´d let him show us around. Paulo agreed that if we didn´t like the apartments he would just take us back to the bus station, no problem. At least that´s what we thought he said - he spoke a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese (Spanguese?) so we only understood a fraction of what was going on.

We go out to the parking lot and he runs to his car - and pulls up in the fine automobile below. Uh oh. We decided we would stick with it though, just to see the island.

Paulo was talking up this apartment the whole way there. Right on the beach, Muy Lindo! He would say. We got there and it was.... ok. It was right on the beach (Barra da Lagoa), but it was right upstairs of a restaurant. There was nothing very nice about it other than the location. We wanted something nicer for our honeymoon week, so we told him no thanks - we´d just like to rent a car and be on our way.

He was a little upset, but he took us back towards centro to rent a car. He'd shown us a flier for a car rental earlier and so we figured he was taking us there. But no - he pulls up next to this apartment and makes a call, and soon an oldish lady comes out to get in the car with us. We soon find out he's trying to rent us his friends car. At this point we're pretty tired of being in the car with Paulo and we demand he takes us to a real car rental place. Paulo and his lady friend have a very heated argument in Portuguese, with a lot of "Americanos" and "não falam português" being dropped. He dropped her off at a corner and finally we made it to the the car rental, which was actually a legitimate business that spoke English. We gladly got out of the car, and gave Paulo some gas money to keep him happy.

Stephanie got on the internet at a place around the corner while I checked out the car. The car was pretty basic, a two door manual hatchback Chevy (a model they don't make in the US) but it was fine for our needs. Stephanie got good news at the internet cafe, one of the places we liked was available - so we headed out for Praia Ingleses (a beach town on the north of the island).

We made it to Praia Ingleses thanks to the offline maps app on my old smartphone I brought, but we had to stop at another internet cafe to figure out exactly the spot. Finally we made it in the door, probably 6 hours after our bus made it in to town. We were pretty beat, but our place was awesome so we were happy.

Our apartment had two bedrooms, two baths, two TVs, a kitchen, washing machine, a security guard with private parking spots, and private beach access. It was right in the center of Ingleses too, so we could walk to nearby restaurants. Here's the view from the living room:

We didn't do too much that first day, just got the lay of the land and ate at a restaurant at the beach. We were really happy with our spot though and looking forward to exploring the island.

The next day we spent the morning at our beach and ate at a buffet Livre. There are two types of buffets in Brazil - Livre or Kilo. The Livre buffets have a set price for as much as you can eat, but the Kilo places you pay by weight. We have become huge fans of the Kilo buffets, since Stephanie only eats about $3 USD worth of food, and the quality is usually pretty good. Some of them even have churrascaria (Brazillian barbeque) station which is always good. The only downside is most of them are only open for lunch 😞

That afternoon was our first attempt to "explore the island". Easier said than done. The island is bigger than we thought, and each time we'd head out we would find somewhere amazing that would eat up a bunch of time. Our first stop was Santinho beach, where I spotted a trail that wove around the point to the south. The trail was too irresistable so we ended up hiking a mile or so around the point. Here's a few pics:

A video from our hike south of Santinho beach:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42585283@N08/8208949511/in/photostream

After that we headed south in our car with the intent of making it at least to Praia Mole - but we explored a road that ended up taking us to the lagoon in the center of the island. The lagoon is huge, and in many parts crowded, but the little nook we found was hardly crowded at all. The water was really shallow quite a ways out, and super warm - like 90 deg F - so we ended up plopping our chairs in the water and hanging out for quite a while. By the time we were done it was time to head back.

A video from the lagoon:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42585283@N08/8208958435/in/photostream

The next day it was a little overcast but still pretty warm. We decided to go to a water park - Aquashow park, that we'd passed on our drive. We didn't bring a camera, but here is the website http://aguashowpark.com.br/

Some of the waterslides were pretty crazy and we got banged up a bit - but overall the park is pretty small so we got our fill after a few hours. There was still lots of daylight so we set out to explore the northern part of the island. We went to Praia Brava, then followed the northern coast westward until we got to the Forte. We couldn't read any of the signs so I have no idea what the history of the fort is - but there were cannons so we were happy we paid the admission fee.

The next day was Steph's birthday - the big 3-0!! We set out to explore south. We made it past Mole and all the way to Jaquina, where the weather started to get a little nasty. There is a big dune where you can rent sandboards, but it was drizzling a little bit so we decided not to do it. We watched some surfers get pounded by some pretty decent sized waves, then headed back up to Ingleses for lunch (our first kilo buffet with a churrascaria, pretty darn good).

Steph decided a perfect birthday afternoon would be to curl up with a book, so I decided to rent a surfboard from the shop across the street. I headed up to the northern end of Igleses where the guy at the shop recommended, and caught some fun waves. The south wind was picking up though, and I didn't have a wetsuit so I got cold within an hour. I headed back for a hot shower, and by that time Steph was feeling adventurous again. We decided to check out Praia Brava again to look at the waves. I'd seen some potential there the day before but nobody was surfing. Today though there were lots of surfers in the water and some really good waves. We sat on the rock a while and watched the waves, and also tons of dolphins (at least 20) catching waves and jumping out of the water.

That night we ate at a Kilo sushi buffet, where for the first time steph ate more than me. I think she ate more than 1/2 kilo (more than a pound for you Yanks). The perfect birthday feast, according to her.

The next day we headed back to Praia Brava so I could surf. The waves weren't as good as I had seen the day before but I still caught a handful. Steph isn't the best surf photographer - she only got one picture of me as I was pulling out of a wave. If you ask me she was just reading her book instead of watching. I can't blame her though, surfing is pretty boring to watch most of the time.

After we returned the surfboard, we finally headed out to explore the island for real. It was Sunday, and we wanted Monday to be a relaxing day of nothing before we headed out on Tuesday. So it was now or never. We saw two of these lizards on our way, and for the second one I snapped a picture:

We passed Mole, Jaquina, the lagoa, stopped at Campeche for a drink on the beach. It was so tempting to stop at all the little beaches we saw but we wanted to complete our quest so we pushed on.

The further you go south the more laid back the island gets. The furthest south beach we stopped at was Praia da Solidao, where you literally drive on to the sand to park.

The tourist map doesn't show you this, but there is a way to cross to the western side of the island from Praia da Solidao. We found the route by looking at the map on my smartphone and it ended up being quite the experience. The road went from paved, to cobblestones, to dirt, then started climbing very steeply through the mountains. There were a lot of really pretty farms and pastures, then it dropped steeply on the other side of the island. It's hard to tell from the pictures just how steep and rutted out the road was. We banged the frame quite a few times on our little car but hey, it was a rental and we had insurance so we pressed on.

We made it to the western side and decided to head south until the road ended. We passed more pristene little beaches, these ones facing the mainland, but it was starting to get late. There was nothing much to see at the end of the road (I had to back up for 200 yards or so to turn around since it was a single lane) so we finally headed back for Ingleses. We stopped at the bus station on the way home to buy our tickets up to Foz, the next destination.

On Monday we proceeded with our plan to relax on the beach out front of our apartment. The weather was in our favor and it was super nice. We did do one excursion, walked south along the beach to the next point, and up a little trail.

We are a bit sad to leave this place, it has been pretty awesome. I think another trip here in the future will be necessary. But we have to press on, more adventures ahead.

Honeymoon day 14: Florianopolis

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