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

Arriving on a cloudy day in Floripa I decided to just chill in the hostel Tucano as this is my first day, the owner Caio a young dude is super cool as is the staff, all very friendly, it is the quiet season so not so much going on in the hostel, 6 people staying 5 of us guys all from the US and one Aussie girl. We decided to watch a movie to beat boredom so the texan dude pop the Last King of Scotland dvd and it was only me and him who finished the whole movie, the other boys did not want to see brutality and gore so they left before it ended, just as the credits were showing, power got cut, apparently because of the wind. it is raining here on and ... read more

Hinter mir steht El Gran Capitan, der bekannteste Zug Argentiniens. 2 mal pro Woche faehrt er von Buenos Aires, 1800 Km nach Posada im Nord-Osten von Argentinien. Dauer: 30 Stunden, Hoechstgeschwindigkeit 40km/h. Ein ganzer Tag und 1 ½ Naechte im Zug. Das ist doch genau das richtige fuer mich. Ich kann schlafen, die Landschaft sehen, die Beine ausstrecken und rumlaufen wenn ich will. Gleich ist Abfahrt, das heisst einsteigen und anders als in Europa bleiben die Türen bei der Fahrt nicht geschlossen, sondern offen. Die Zeit vertreiben, wird sich mit mir auf der Fahrt, Justin. Wir wollen zusammen nach Puerto Iguazu zu den grössten Wasserfaellen der Welt, dem Drei-Ländereck: Paraguay, Argentinien, Brasilien um dann weiter nach Brasilien. Wie erwartet vergeht die Zeit im Zug viel schneller als im Bus. Wir lassen die Landschaft an uns ... read more

What an excellent recommendation this island was!! While we were in Cusco, Peru (back in January) we were given a recommendation by a random Brasilian traveler who was sharing our table who said to definitely make a visit to Florianopolis. The Irish surfer, Skully and London Bloke Pete from Punto del Diablo made the journey to Florianapolis with us. We would eventually find ourselves with these same crazy guys one month later!! What a riot! After 4 buses and 36 hrs of traveling we found ourselves crossing from the mainland town of Sáo José onto the island of Florianopolis. We met a guy (Luke) on the bus who gave us a recommendation to stay at the Sunset Hostel. Our initial intent was to get an apartment, which would make it easier on our budget... but as ... read more

Florianopolis We had tried to book into the Backpackers Share House which had been recommended to us but unfortunately it was booked out, so we booked another hostel on the South of the Island called Albergue do Pirata instead. On arrival we were taken across the road from the main hostel to our "double room" where we were greeted by a kid who wouldnt let us in the door, and then an old dorm room with broken bunks and a double bed all in the same room... on top of this the main hostel was virtually empty. All this aside, it was a great opportunity to explore the south which was very pretty. We went for a 1.5 hr trek through the jungle to a secluded beach which also had a lagoon, on the way back, ... read more

Ilha do Mel (Honey Island) has been our most remote place visited so far. We took a 3 hour bus ride from a city called Curitiba to a little ferry port and boarded a boat with 4 other locals to a tropical island. We arrived to very few people, and where I wrote before that Ilha Grande had no roads, cars etc - this is another meaning altogether! There aren’t even street lights! So when I left the internet cafe on the first night I pretty much walked back, hands out in front of me hoping I wouldn’t fall into a stagnant pool of water with the thousands of mosquitoes that live here (I mean THOUSANDS - we are getting bitten loads!). It was pretty scary - the paths are covered in trees so there isn’t ... read more