Blogs from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, South America - page 12

Now in Brazil! I was only just starting to learn Spanish, but they speak Portugese here so i´ll have to start again! It´s very beautiful here. It´s a tropical island with long sandy beaches, colourful houses up the hillside, turqoise lagoons and beachside bars. Incredibly relaxing. Are you jealous yet?! In terms of famous sites to see there is actually not that much, but the weather is warm and there is lots of surfing to do and cocktails to drink, but I can´t do any of it!! It seems I´ve got my pilonalidal sinus back and it´s an open wound so I can´t drink alcohol or go in the sea. I´m devastated, but I can go fishing (didn´t catch a bloody thing) and sunbathe (weather good now, but it wasn´t yesterday). It´s a real party hostel, ... read more

The trip slowed down a bit after leaving Argentina. We spent a day in Porto Alegre, which is in southern Brazil, but didn't do much other than go to a samba club and speak English and broken Spanish to a bunch of Brazilians that usually had no idea what we were saying. In Brazil, we have been banking off the fact that the Brazilians know enough Spanish to communicate. We then took a flight to our next stop, Florianopolis. This spot was one I was really looking forward to because its an island off the coast of Brazil with really awesome beaches and good surf, which would be a nice change of pace from all of the big cities we've been traveling through. The only problem is that its winter in Brazil. This wasn't at all ... read more

So I finally finished exams and classes in BA, came out with a B average and my GPA didn´t go down, which I can´t complain about since I was studying abroad. Victoria, another girl from the CofC program decided last minute to travel with me! So now I have company with my grandparents and parents are happy about! We flew out of BA on the same day everyone else in our group flew home, we just left bright and early that morning at 6am and they left that night. We flew all day, changed planes in Porto Alegre, Brazil and finally arrived in Florianopolis around 4pm. We decided to go ahead and take a taxi to the bus station and buy our tickets for the bus to Rio de Janiero to make sure we could stay ... read more

We had decided to go to Santa Catarina Island for the weekend. It features some fantastic things; the state capital, Florianópolis, a lot of beaches, a really beautiful lagoon plus great nature. In the summertime (winter in Europe) it is full tourists from all over South America, and it is quite popular on other parts of the year too. That specially applies to the north part of the island which is developed a la Mallorca. Still it is a fairly big place, and the east and south parts are not so crowded. Day one, Friday The plan was to go early on Friday morning in order to hit the beach in the afternoon. However, on Thursday evening after I came home from work, we "had a few beers" resulting in some serious health issues on Friday ... read more

Well well well, our time out here in South America just keeps going from crazy to crazier and our week in Florianopolis was no exception...but I suppose id better start at the beginning! But before I do that, just on a personal note. Two of my very close friends have just anounced their engagement (thanks for waiting guys, Mum 2, you can stop crying now), getting serious for a minute though, congratulations! I know how happy you both make each other. Trig and Kaz are two of the most genuinely kind and lovely people you could ever wish to meet and I wish you every happiness in the future. God, I think I just aged 4 years writing that. Mum 2, you can stop crying now. (Trigs Mum, Jill) Back to the business in hand, when ... read more