Blogs from Santa Catarina, Brazil, South America

Santos is the largest port in S.America and has developed because of the exports of coffee, sugar cane and orange juice. The port is ugly as most ports are and the main town is full of tower blocks so not that pretty either. There are a few colonial buildings left between the sprawling high rises. It's best feature is the very long beach with greenery and trees along the waterfront, but surprisingly few bars and restaurants. Apparently the locals spend all day on the beach whenever they can. We went to the Botanical Gardens which contain a nice selection of all the trees from the rain forest. The orchidarium was very disappointing with very few in flower. Also saw a few cages with some wild life but not too exciting. The next "highlight" was the Football ... read more

Yesterday we arrived on an all day bus trip from Curritiba, almost 5pm, at the long distance bus terminal in down down Florianopolis. and nothing planned. The girl in the tourist information centre was totally unhelpful and almost needed a cattle prod to move away from her computer and engage with us. We had been in the office for around 10minutes looking at maps, brochures and trying to work out what to do before she spoke and we realised she was an employee. The city itself is the capital of the state of Santa Catarina and is high rises and a mass of people. She suggested to look at the island which is Santa Catarina, either the north, east or south aspects. She recommended east so we walked to the A bus terminal 2 blocks down ... read more

Hoje é um daqueles dias. Olho em volta aqui no trabalho e me vejo soterrada em papéis e uma xícara de café já frio. O telefone - que não tocou hoje - dá a falsa impressão de calma e tranquilidade. Mas é um tudo um engano, já que o aparelho não tocou hoje por estar quebrado e há muitas, muitas coisas a fazer. Sim, eu devia estar escrevendo as matérias para a próxima edição do boletim informativo, eu devia estar ligando para a fulana para saber sobre as contrações do nosso banco de empregos, devia estar cadastrando os currículos no sistema, devia estar traduzindo um texto para inglês, mas paaaaaaaaaaaaara tudo. Preciso me concentrar em não fazer absolutamente nada, dar um relax pra essa máquina pensadora chamada cérebro. Então, por alguns poucos minutos decolei nos meus ... read more

Como eu disse no primeiro post, a ideia de encarar essa viagem foi muito repentina, nada planejado. O que, em tempos de alta de dólar e libras mega valorizadas, é muito complicado. Comecei, obviamente, pesquisando preços de passagens. Ok, tá acessível. Próximo passo: dinheiro para levar. Sim, por que ninguém irá me sustentar em terras estrangeiras, o máximo que consigo são uns sofás amigos em Londres e Manchester, o que já ajuda e muito. Fui ao banco, saquei metade da minha poupança e fui comprar libras. Balde de água fria: minha pequena fortuna virou um reles trocado inglês. A Rainha Elizabeth, nas notas de 50 libras parecia rir da minha cara. Até consegui ouvi-la com seu lindo sotaque britânico ela dizer algo como "silly girl"... Passei o resto da tarde calculando de onde mais poderia tirar ... read more

We arrived by bus from Montevideo, Uruguay. The ride was 18 hours but it was confortable and the bus was not full so we had two seats each. The bus company collects your passport and when we crossed the border the bus driver got out and went through customs for us. He gave us our passports back after we passed through customs. The bus only stopped for the border and one stop to pick up more riders in Brazil. There are bathrooms on the bus so it did not matter that we did not stop. They also handed out sandwiches, cookies and empanadas when we boarded the bus along with water and organge juice. We arrived at the bus station in Florianopolis and we expected to find car rental companies. Colonia which is a very small ... read more