Blogs from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, South America - page 18

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

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

Well where do I begin... our entry into Brasil was interesting if not weird. As we came up to the boarder on the bus we had to get off and go through immigration, while the people just going to the falls for the day could stay on the bus. After obtaining our visa´s which requires filling in 5 lines on a piece of paper, and getting a stamp (no questions no bag search´s...drug runners dream) we sat down and waited for the next bus to come along to take us further into Foz Iguazu. As we were sitting there we realised no cars were stopped or searched, it was an open border it seems and anyone could just drive on through. Although there was a wierd thing that occurred, everytime a bus pulled up, everyone had ... read more

So today was the most beautiful day I have had since coming to South America. I am here in Florianopolis, Brazil, a small island off of the southern coast and the capital of the state of Santa Catarina, and it is here that I have had hands down the best and the worst days of my journey. I’ll start with the best: today. I woke up at 5:50 a.m. and took a shower while watching the sun rise over the clay rooftops outside the open window in my bathroom. After a refreshing shower and making pita sandwiches with ricotta, red leaf lettuce, mustard, pepper, and fresh tomatoes (aka, lunch) I headed to the Laguna bus depot with Sohmer, Lynn, and Gigi. We managed to catch the 7:20 bus, the first out of the depot, that theoretically ... read more