Blogs from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, South America - page 16

Ola everyone! Yesterday was Payday!!! You will be pleased to hear that "peidei", you pronounce it exactly like payday, means "I farted!!!" in protugese! Hillarious! And that is all we did to receive our final salary for 2006 AND 2007!!! Yey! No rent no bills, only fun to be had with the money. We finally flew Ruama´s nest to move towards Buenos Aires. To cut the journey of hours and hours we stopped sort of on the way to enjoy some waves. By cutting the journey, what we actually did was swap a 23 hour journey by bus to Iguacu, for an 18 hour (which turned out to be 19.5 hours) and a 15 hour journey to Iguacu THEN another 20 or so to Buenos Aires. On a map it is a cut OK, but in ... read more

Headed from Rio down down south for 30 hours to Florionopolis (Yes I said 30 hours! Remember if you're getting bored about me mentioning the bus journeys, remember I had to actually do them!) as luck would have it though they sell valium over the counter in Brazil and I slept like a baby for at least 24 hours whilst Greyhead struggled beside me. We travelled with our new friend Bonnie "Off The" Hook who we had met in Rio and was taken in as my little sister and Steve's daughter! :) Finally arrived mid afternoon and took the local bus over to the islands and the Backpackers Sharehouse where we were staying for the next five days. The bus stops at the end of the line and then you have to cross a rope bridge ... read more

Finally left Illa Grande after a few days and spent 29 hours traveling to this place called Florianopolis, when we arrived it was raining........Not the same as English rain though. We actually went on the day that we did to get down there to watch the Billabong world surf competition but when we got there found out that it was further south. So on our second day we caught a 3 hour round bus trip just to get there and find out that it had already finished for the day, typical. Then to top it off on my last day in Florianopolis before I got on a 16 hour bus journey to Iguaçu we got stuck on some dodgy bus due to serious roadwork’s so didn’t even get a chance to see the beach.......Oh well not ... read more

Brazil, land of beaches and surf...welcome to Florianopolis, a city straddling the mainland and a barrier island, Santa Catarina. This 50 km island has over 50 surf spots, tons of beaches, dunes, and forested mountains. On the ocean side of the island are dozens of small towns full of surfers or commuters, and in the center of the island is a freshwater lake and ´centro´ ie town before you get to town (Floripa as the locals call it). The surf culture is great, when i and a few friends from spain arrived, we had been there maybe 20 min before we met some guys who invited us to come stay and surf with them. I ended up taking surf lessons, sandboarding the dunes, and staying for 2 weeks. (I eventually got my own place, rented from ... read more

After the quiet of Uruguay and the chilly weather we finally made it to Brasil, taking an overnight bus for 12 hours - the seats reclined almost all the way and we were handed a blanket, pillow and food...its tough on the road sometimes! After an overnight stop in Porto Alegre - a bustling working city with not much for the tourist but an incredible 72 dish vegetarian buffet: all you can eat for a measly 1 pound 90!! We nipped to a very quiet (as out of season) beach resort called Praia do Rosa, in the hope of seeing whales, but alas they hadn´t quite made it to this stretch of coastline. However we stayed in the cheapest hostel (5squid for a double room) and experienced a Brazilian birthday. Here was where we watched England ... read more

Just ticked Brazil off my list of places to see. And what a brilliant place it is too. If only Florianopolis wasn't a 26 hour trip from home, I'd come here every weekend! More later.... read more

After ten days in Florianopolis, my impression of Brazil (through beach town tinted sunglasses) is that it is a beautiful place filled with beautiful, beautiful people. No photograph can capture the way the wind blows by your face and the sun strikes the water on the Atlantic Ocean and no words can describe how kind and warm the people are. The men here are much gentler than those in Buenos Aires. While the macho sentiment still exists, it doesn’t manifest itself in whistle blowing and sweet talking (or maybe the Brazilian standard is a bar too high for me to meet…) and here elderly men behave as one would expect them to—with warm smiles and gentle words. People are patient with you when you struggle to find the right words in Portuguese; they even struggle with ... read more