Blogs from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, South America - page 9

Our first stop in Brazil was Florianopolis or Flori for short, a beautiful green island connected to mainland Brazil by bridge. We stayed in Backpackers Sharehouse which was a really cool hostel, overlooking Barra de Lagao beach. This place seemed to collect tired backpackers and the lads were calling a backpackers retirement home. The retired backpackers included Andrew Murphy and his mate Brady, Dave who should be completing his first novel any day now and Jay the mad looking Manc. The weather was not great here as it was overcast and rained alot so we didn't spend as much time on the beach as we would have liked. The days we did spend on the beach were passed surfing, swiming, body surfing in some monsterous waves and checking out the chicas. Nearby beach Praia Mole had ... read more

One can say futebol (pronounced foochieball) is part of the culture here in Brazil. On any given day you can see about one in three people wearing some sort of jersey. So we desided to go to a game to get some culture. We figured what better game than when the two Curitiba teams are playing eachother, what's the worst that can happen? Well, the super fans are called fanaticos and to tell you the truth I couldn't see anyone that wasn't a super fan. Toilet paper, fireworks, giant flags, chanting, singing were all present. Seemed like anything was allowed but beer, not sure why. You can walk the streets with beer in hand, drive your car with beer in hand, do just about anything except no drinking in the stadium, only outside. I have never ... read more

The conductor pulled out his phone card, dialled the number on the pamphlet asked for directions and put us on the next bus going that way. It took us a moment to process what had just transpired before I remembered...this is Brazil, the land where the people you meet will either kill or rob you or become your best friend. Well, I´m still alive, have yet to be robbed and my list of best friends just keeps growing. It had been a rather arduous trip. Brazilian buses were not up to their Argentinian or Chilean counterparts. Eighteen hours on a Marcopolo was just too much. The seats were narrow and legroom was non-existent. But the rest that the country had to offer more than made up for this inconvenience. I had spent my last night in ... read more

After we left Rio we took a hop, skip and jump a few hours down the road to a town called Paraty. Upon arrival we realised that our time in Rio had taken its toll and our mental calendars were a bit sideways. We got the dates wrong and we weren´t actually booked into the hostel. With it being the busiest time of the year we were told that there was no room and they offered to allow us sleep on the floor of the balcony. What with all those scourges of mosquitos in the area this would´ve been a bad idea so we were pushed to fork out a little extra and stay in a local guesthouse. The sun was in full effect when we arrived but this was a luxury short lived. Within an ... read more

High-test, please...and don't forget to fill the case of empties in the trunk. ... read more