Blogs from Santa Catarina, Brazil, South America - page 6

It appears that I will not last long in Florianopolis or more accurately Ilha de Santa Catarina. I was planning on staying for 10 days, but find myself leaving after only 4 days. This place is beautiful, at least since the sun came out yesterday, but for some reason I haven't really been feeling it. Maybe I chose the wrong neighborhood. I chose Barra da Lagoa because it was close to the beach and the hostel that I chose sits high on a hill with amazing ocean views. But all semblance of life, shops, and entertainment are in a neighborhood called Lagoa. My first night a hostel friend and I took the bus to check it out. However, we had to wait like 20 minutes for the bus to take us there, and almost an hour ... read more

Day 16 was spent trapped on another hefty long journey . When we arrived at the main bus terminal we had to then catch a bus to a smaller terminal to then catch a local bus to our lovely little apartment. It worked out about the same price each as sharing a dorm in a hostel so for 3 or 4 nights me, Laura and Jo had our own kitchen, living room and outside pool...heaven! Plus the woman that runs it is the most helpful person and so motherly. Her little girl and her friends were throwing waterbombs at each other over the pool whilst us three were sunbathing- nice little cool down! Overall it was a lovely little family run place and I definitely recommend it. Florianopolis is beautiful...me and Jo went to the beach ... read more

Florianopolis is the beach capital of south east Brasil, with arguably some of the most beautiful stretches of sand in the region. One thing is for sure – there is no short supply of beaches here. Over six days in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Sarah and I visited at least as many beaches and saw countless others. The Atlantic Ocean caresses the south east state of Santa Catarina. The state capital is Florianopolis (Floripa) which boasts some of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Most of its inhabitants are descendants of Portuguese, German and Italian immigrants. With our Portuguese being basically non-existent and many locals not speaking English, it was quite fun to be able to at least speak German with some of the residents. Myself and Sarah, along with our friend ... read more

Geo: -27.6337, -48.4552Final day in Santa Catarina - not having done a whole lot these past four days, I was determined to check out another part of the island in the last few hours before my flight to Rio. The simplest option was Praia Joaquina and its adjacent sand dunes, which are popular for sand boarding. Had the weather cooperated during previous days I would have tried this out already, but of course that never happened. And as for today ... there just wasn't enough time. According to the hostel, Praia Joaquina is about a 40 minute walk away - wrong! It ended up taking me almost an hour to walk there, so either the hostel's estimate is wrong, or there is some short cut that I missed! I could've simply taken a bus there, but ... read more

Geo: -27.5983, -48.4678The cost of things here in Brazil defies all logic - clothing is super-expensive, with Europeans claiming that things are cheaper back home. Miguel from Portugal told me that Osklen, a Brazilian chain selling designer beach and casual wear, recently opened and subsequently closed a branch in Lisbon, because it was simply too expensive. $150-200 for a pair of casual canvas shoes? Who could afford that in Brazil? Even Solange told me that a shirt from Europe that would cost 40 Reais could sometimes be double that in Brazil. Another quirk of Brazilian math - I had a lunch buffet at Curitiba's municipal market - all you can eat except for the meats, from which you were allowed to choose three items. The stews, salads, pastas, side dishes, and desserts were unlimited. Great value ... read more