florianopolis, last stop in brazil

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Florianopolis didnt work out as anticipated and we were disappointed to not get to spend more time there. Firstly, our bus which left at 7pm was meant to arrive at 10am, due to traffic jams/accident/not sure what, we were stuck at a standstill on the motorway for close to 2 hours. We didnt end up getting in til almost 3 oclock. The plan had been to have 2 nights and 3 full days here, but due to the fact there wasnt a connecting bus to Uruguay on the Tuesday we had to get the earlier one on Monday day time. By the time we got to our hostel it was circa 5, so we only had one real day here which was a real shame.

Rare in the fact that the city is divided between the mainland and a large island, Florianopolis is a wealthy city in Brazils Santa Catarina region near the south of the country. Most of the city centre/commerce is in the mainland but most of the sights of the city are the beaches of the island. There isnt any main area it seemed,but rather lots of coastal areas all over the island. This made it feel like being in the country, when you were actually in the city, officially. Our hostel was situated at the south point of the island and connected by bus - travel was a bit of a pain because the buses were infrequent and you almost always had to get a bus to the connecting terminnal on the island and then a free shuttle bus to take you to the city again. The island from what I seen was very scenic, the people all lived in bungalows many with hammocks on their doorstep. Not a bad deal eh?

On our only full day we went to a lake ont he island which was amazing. It was so peaceful and quiet and the water was a lovely warm temperature. I could have stayed all day. The weather itself was ideal, around 27. We lay about there for a few hours, swimming, reading and relaxing. Went into the water a few times and you got wee fish coming up to you nibbling you, something like the things you now see in shopping centres. It was okay but not being a fish fan I didnt let them do it too long but Gary got really into it! As standard we made some furry friends along the way, and a young labrador befriended us which was lovely. He was so friendly and we threw sticks about for him and gave him a bit of banana.

Once the hunger had kicked in we headed to a local supermarket for a Lanch and what a Lanch it was. Sausage empanada, cheese balls and other delicacies hit the spot. We then went to the beach which had really aggressive surfer wave. I went in to cool down and I probably was knocked off my feet and unable to stand up about 6 times. It was hilarious I almost couldnt stand up for laughing, my bikini was getting dragged down my waist too and grainy sand was stuck all over my body, took ages to get it off me!

While there it was the Carnaval weekend, famous worldwide and celebrated throughout Brazil and even other parts of Latin America. When we arrived original we were met with a storm of young brazilians dressed up in anything from drag to fancy costumes and even people not dressed up.By the time we got ourselves sorted at the hostel and back into town with the journey(circa 1 hr) things were still going but we didnt really know what to go to. The main event seemed to be ticketed in an arena, so we walked around a bit, saw people dressed up but no parades as such. It felt like we had missed the party because everyone just seemed to be drunk and hanging around the streets but this wasnt the case as offiical programming had it finishing at 6am. Our last bus was at 1am, failing that not back on til 4am, so we decided to call it a night as we were just pottering around. On the positive if we hadnt left earlier we wouldnt have had the day we had on Sunday but as I say it is just a shame we had so little time here.

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Comments

[Uncle George]

Gary's beard
Doesn't Gary look young without a beard !!