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Published: November 5th 2010
Friday 8th October 2010 Arriving in Florianopolis city centre late morning with another long bus to Ilha Santa Caterina (following poor directions), we met a friendly local who pointed out the sites and helped us find our way. We were welcomed by the owner, Roberta, when we arrived at “Way2Go” hostel, she advised us to grab a local boat up the lake to Costa Lagoa for lunch, so we headed out but missed the hourly boat, then the heavens opened & wind picked up so we decided to lunch in the comfort of our warm, dry hostel instead. We were in Lagoa, a small lively town on Ilha Santa Caterina - we hit the town that night and stumbled across a real gem called the Big Bamboo, which, for obvious reasons looked like it belonged on the beach, with live music (one guy singing & playing the guitar, the other sitting on a box & banging it) and had a great chilled evening with a few English tunes thrown in just for us!
Saturday 9th October 2010 Beaches, beaches, beaches... We were given the impression they were about a 10 minute walk, so after ½ an hour we asked someone
and were told just 15 mins away, hmmm! We finally reached Joaquina beach, a long but fairly narrow stretch. It was VERY windy, so we settled down in a slightly sheltered area thinking it was a little chilly, only to find that 15 mins later we were both burnt (tomato face!). We climbed on the rocks at the end of the beach taking photos of the 2-3m high waves, then headed back down the same road towards the other beach, stopping for some sand boarding at the dunes on the way.
Hiring a board for R$20, Richard had a hard landing first go, badly hurting his bum - but after that he mastered the art (similar to snowboarding but with less control) & took pleasure in showing up everyone else while they tumbled down around us. The hardest part was getting back to the top, especially for Richard who seemed to be carrying the board for Joanne half the time too ;o) Joanne was enjoying it as well and did a few runs standing and a couple sitting down like a toboggan, until her last go when she came off at speed and the board hit her between the
Sandboarding
Near Praia Joaquinalegs - ouch! Bruised & knackered we handed back the board & made our way to Praia Mole. After a bit of a walk we arrived to find everyone wrapped up in blankets & jumpers as it was even less sheltered than Joaquina! We hung around briefly & then headed back to the hostel. In the evening we tried to find somewhere to eat, but after an hour circling the restaurants trying to find some vegetables (which is an impossible feat in Brazil) we returned to the hostel & cooked for ourselves, popping out for a quick drink afterwards accompanied by some live reggae music.
Sunday 10th October 2010 Our last day in Florianopolis, we finally took the boat to Costa Lagoa, catching the 10am boat by the skin of our teeth after a relaxed breakfast. It was a pretty little port which greeted us with a long run of lake side restaurants all looking & smelling great. We needed to work up an appetite first so we took a stroll up the path and the next thing we knew we were hiking up a large hill. At the top we turned to find a fantastic panoramic view
of the lake, sea and surrounding area. We trudged on in our flip-flops back down the other side but unfortunately there were no more points of interest so eventually we turned around for the long trek back.
After 3 hours hiking we were hungry and looking for somewhere to eat when we stumbled across Indio & took a seat. Liking what a group of ladies had to our right we enquired to discover it wasn’t on the menu! We copied them & plate after plate of prawns, fish, rice, chips & black beans etc kept being delivered to the table. We (the royal ‘we’ aka: Richard) made a very good dent in what was probably enough food for 4 people & took the rest in a doggy bag. Waving goodbye to a cute little girl who had been amusing us during our meal, we returned to the jetty for the boat back just as it started to rain. We packed & watched DVD’s ready to set off in the morning. Our hostel owner was on high alert and the windows were locked as apparently there had been an armed robbery at the supermarket that afternoon - Not something you
expect in such a sleepy little town!
Monday 11th October 2010 Not our most interesting day - up & off to the bus terminal after breakie. 23 hour bus to Montevideo stopping in Porto Alegra briefly to switch buses, our longest bus journey so far... lets hope they don't get any longer!
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Mark
non-member comment
Similar to snowboarding but with less contro
Is this possible, boarders are always out of control anyway!!