Florianopolis

Our journey so far has been very smooth. A little too smooth perhaps?

We landed safely in Florianopolis on the island of Santa Catarina in the south of Brazil. Great flight, good airline, free food! (Although...slightly worrying that they didn`t have lifejackets and instead recommended that we use our seats for bouyancy should we land on water!)

Our pre-booked transfer was waiting for us when we arrived. So far so smooth. After driving for about half an hour, the taxi took a turn up a dimly lit residential street. A shortcut we thought....surely! Then another turn, around another corner, onto more residential streets. Eventually we stopped in front of a non-descript building in a non-descript street and entered Tucano House Hostel to a fanfare of drums and tambourines! A welcoming committee? Just for us? NO! It was a party of 45 miners from central Brazil who were staying in the same hostel and were well on their way to an all-night party. Our hearts sank. There was no way we could sleep through that noise! Our evening was about to go from bad to worse. We were told that they had mixed up the dates and double booked us, so there wasn`t a room for us in the hostel. But not to worry, they had arranged for us to sleep in a `Private Chalet` across the road. This `chalet` turned out to be a shed and we had mattress on the floor. This caused Nikky to have a little tantrum and a strop and told the (really friendly) hostel owner that there was no way we would be paying full price for this! Luckily they didn`t charge us a penny!

After a very long night we eventually drifted off to the chants, singing and drum beats of the 45 miners and checked into our nice double room the next morning. What a relief!

The island has 42 beaches and the nearest to us was a beach called Praia Mole. We walked there on the first day (an hr and a half each way!) but were rewarded with a beautiful white sandy beach. And a few beautiful Brazilain bodies to go with it! (both male and female..haha)

The heat was intense, so in true Robinson Crusoe style I built us a hut made of bamboo and Nikky`s sarong (see gallery!). Very pleased with my building skills! As we sheltered in our little patch of shade a pod of dolphins swam past, surfing the waves a couple of meters off shore!

The beach was a little too hot, so on the last day we decided to explore the area around the hostel. We were staying on a huge lake and so we took a boat up to a tiny fishing village that is only accessible either by boat or by foot. The trip took us past some amazing lakeside villas and the village was really unspoilt. We walked up into the hills and found a waterfall!

Back in town we enjoyed amazing tropical juices and smoothies and the hostel actually turned out good. Met a few nice people and the bar has served us amazing Caipirinhas and beer at very little cost!

But guess what? It is our last evening tonight and we have been told we are double booked again! But we have been upgraded from the shed...we have been given a matress in a room in the building site next door! Let`s see how that goes!

Off to Salvador tomorrow morning at 6.30am. Next post from Bahia in northern Brazil!

Ciao!

Jan and Nikky.