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Published: December 18th 2012
Rio Grande de Sul: Porto Alegre & Santa Catarina: Florianopolis Once again we found ourselves without a plan. As I mentioned before we were not even supposed to cross into Brazil. We quickly scanned our guidebook and found out some really interesting information about Southern Brazil, the land of
Gaucho people. Apparently the
Rio Grande de Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana are mostly inhabited by the descendants of German, Italian, Swiss and….surprise, surprise Polish people. This, we have not expected. We decided to break our journey up north in Porto Alegre - not a typical tourist destination but apparently worth a stop.
From a border town of Chui there is another 7h on a bus to Porto Alegre. Chui is nothing else but a two lane road dividing the town between two countries and a bunch of duty free shops. When we arrived in
Porto Alegre it was already after dark. We hoped on a city bus to get to the house of our next CS host – Isabel. We stood there at the bus stop with all of our belongings and people stared … not at us but at our bags. We did not think much of it
as we obviously forgot to read the ‘
dangers and annoyances’ section about Brazil. Besides, South of Brazil meant to be very safe. Only later on Isabel told us that she was assaulted around 5 times (including at gun point) and many people she knows in the town was either robbed or kidnapped in this town (just to extract PIN number as ATMs are closed through the night). Hmmm, better not to know...
We were greeted with a beer and soon after taken to
Polska Restaurant for some nice Polish food. Isabel and her husband thought we would have missed our food after such long time on a road. How nice is that, ha? We practically did not know one another and they care if we miss home or not. I don’t think our friends at home would have really cared that much, knowing we are not the homesick ones. We had amazing dinner of multiple courses (eat as much as you can thing) and nice wine and we really enjoyed ourselves. We even got to talk with an elderly owner of the place who was so thrilled to see ‘real’ Poles and told us the story of how he
ended up in Brazil. Isabel is an ambassador of CS in Porto Alegre and even though she could host us only for one night (it was a holiday weekend in Brazil and most people were leaving town) she arranged for others to look after us. Brilliant!!! We were speechless.
The next day we were escorted by her friend to yet another host – Ricardo, who opened his house to us like to old friends. He lives in a nice, trendy part of the town, close to the historic centre and all the action. There is a lot of action in these people’s lives, I assure you. The same evening or rather night we were invited for a holiday BBQ to another C.Surfer’s house. We were already a little bit tired after the previous late night so when we heard that the BBQ starts at 11pm we were worried – at least I was, as I am not really a night person. Nevertheless, we went for a nice and massive (as in Brazil) meal in the centre and then took a cab to the BBQ venue. It was cold out there. Spring was in full bloom and only brought nice
days but nights were still very chili. At this point we were still adjusting to wearing full attire on, not to mention the actual cold. Wow, you should have seen the BBQ – the real life South American, home prepared
parilla. Massive pieces of marinated meat were stuck onthe biggest skewers I have ever seen and stuck in a chimney like BBQ. It was a feast we have never experienced. I had to go and take a power-nap for an hour or so to be able to survive another late night but when I woke up I was ready for some meat and beer ;-) It was rare and juicy. Tomek never has a problem like that especially when there is food and drink involved haha. We called it a night around 4 am – great night.
The historic town of
Porto Alegre is a very nice example of colonial architecture and we enjoyed our time strolling along the cobbled streets and visiting nice museums. We did some shopping and walked around parks ending up at the old
Usina de Gasometro – thermoelectric station that is now converted into a culture centre. There is a lot of historic walks
around the town and Information Center can supply you with some maps and events calendar. Of course we did not need that as we had our own crew of party planners who really looked after us. We were told us that CS is a huge thing in PA. People participate to meet more people but also for a status. I was not sure what that meant initially but apparently it makes you super cool if you are a C-surfer in this town. You meet foreigners, get to listen about their travel stories and make friends for your future travels. I must admit it is a little bit cool if you cindered yourself a small-ish, non-touristy town gal/lad. Apparently many people wanted to host us when Isabel spread the word – hahaha like being a travel celebrity ;-) We went to one of the CS meetings, held in an Irish Pub and it was really cool indeed.
As Ricardo works during a day obviously, one morning we were picked up by two lovely ladies and took around town. They took us to a locals’ favorite restaurant serving massive steaks, rice and
papas fritas and then we met up with some
other people and saw a Modern Art Museum, banks of Rio Guaiba, trendy neighborhoods outside of the city and we finished by climbing a hill for a fabulous sunset. None of those things we would have been able to do if not for our new group of friends. The next day we were taken to a park to see how locals are spending their weekends. It was a lovely place with such a variety of people and activities that it is hard for me to list them. There were samba dancers,
capoeira fighters, circus acrobats and even Hindu dancers. In the evening we went to yet another bar in the historic centre to catch up with some already acquainted people, one of them being Rafael. He heard that this was our last evening in town but convinced us to stay one day longer and join him for a fabulous Jezz Evening. We already stayed for like 5 days but one day would not make any difference right? It was worth it.
Rafael invited us to his home for a pre-going out drink and also offered Tomek a pipe. That is right – he was a fan and collector of pipes
and got Tomek really interested in it. He gave him a simple pipe made of corn cob and some good tobacco. Tomek got hooked – really and still smokes from time to time. We had a nice meal and then went for a small scale concert in a pub nearby (15BR/7.5$ each). The jazz band was so big that they did not even fit on stage and the music was fantastic. They covered everything from old musical classics to some new tunes we have never heard before. Before we left we received presents from our host Ricardo. Based on his observations, Tomek got a metal figurine of a cross bike (or a chopper, like I know the difference) and I got a decorative bookmark. What is wrong with these people, seriously? Nowhere in other parts of the world had we met people so outgoing, open-minded and so generous!!! They must be slipping something special into their food or water in this town haha. When we thought that Uruguayan hospitality had no rivals here came Brazilian generosity. We love South America already, no doubt.
From PA we chose to visit one of the Brazil’s best beach places –
Santa Catarina.
We took a bus to Florianopolis, locally called Floripa and arrived again in the late evening. We already got tips from our PA friends and we knew for fact that Floripa is not a dangerous place. We hoped on a local bus to the island’s central beach –
Barra da Lagoa and found our way to the Backpackers’ Share house. It was a great place to stay we must admit. Overlooking a little village and a surfers beach, with nice accommodation, massive buffet breakfast and free
caipirinha every night - all this for 20$ per couple. We felt like chilling out in this place. Our days were filled with walking alongside the beach as water was too cold to swim and reading books at the rooftop. We visited trendy Florianopolis town of course but that takes maybe one afternoon. One day we decided to make a trip to the south of the island to do some serious trekking. There is a secret beach – well rather secluded than secret as people know about it – and you can only get there by 2h trek through the jungle. It was a magnificent trek, not too hard and not too light but
views on the top were amazing. You can actually see both sides of the island from the viewing point. The beach is located in the
Lagoinha de Leste which was really nice and very empty. Only one stray dog keept us company and then decided to trek back with us to the village.
So, our first week in Brazil was better than expected, really. We have not met any gauchos, only saw them when passing by villages on a bus but we met so many great personalities. Majority of them look very European and you can see that the fact about the European descendants was true. South is also considered much more developed and richer than North and so far we have seen places that could have been somewhere in Europe to be honest. It was all worth a trip if not for a cultural experience only;-)
Additional info: •
There is no immigration point in Chui so when you exit Urugway you have to ask the driver to stop to be stamped out around 3km before Chui. Our driver was nice enough to wait for us so we could continue on the same bus, but it is not a common practice. The bus always stop for the Brazilian immigration.
•
In Floripa they have this amazing network of buses that connects kilometers between terminals for only 1,5$. You pay only once when you enter any terminal and even if you change buses at other terminals it is included in a ticket price. Sometimes you can go as far as 20km on one tickets – brilliant;-) •
To get to the Secluded Lagoon you have to take a bus to Puntano de Sul from the Lagoa Terminal (around 1,5h one way) if you staying in Barra de Lagoa. If from Floripa then you need to take a bus to Lagoa Terminal and then to Puntano de Sul.
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Chase Waterslides
Tosh Ba Gosh
CS Greatness
So glad to see that CS is doing so well in Brazil. Very excited to join the community there after hosting here in the US. CS is actually one of the things I am most excited to participate in the next time I travel internationally. Such a unique perspective on things