Goodbye Brazil!
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2004
1
21
55
Trip End
Nov 08, 2005
Florianapolis,
Brazil
Friday, March 4, 2005
It was quite a cute town with a long stretch of beach and we were happy as larry when we got ourselves a little apartment - our own fridge and cooker at last !(even if the toilet did leak into the shower..it doesn`t take much to please us these days!)
Barra do Logoa is a serious surfie type hangout - long-haired aussies mooch around with surfboards tucked under their arms like a scene from ´Home and Away´. In a vaugue attempt at being cool we had a surfing lesson. Depsite being told the instructor spoke Spanish, as usual, he didn´t, so there was a slight communcation problem..
01 Jason in his favourite position
. perhaps that´s our excuse for only actually staying on the surf boards for about 2 seconds in total! Oh well at least our spectacular somersaults into the water entertained the locals!A couple of days later it was time to leave Brazil on another 14 hour bus ride south to the border with Uruguay. I had mixed feelings as Brazil´s gorgeous tropical countryside slipped away and was replaced by flat, dry ´cowboy´ lands. I will miss Brazilian peoples` spirit, energy and passion for music, not to mention their immaculate grooming habits! (If you are a single bloke reading this Brazil is full of gorgeous girls!)I will also miss the amazing variety of beautiful landscapes here - tropical beaches, cities like Rio, cute colonial towns, wetlands, jungle - you name it they´ve got it. What about my daily Caipirinha (am now seriously addicted to the sugar cane rum in this drink!) and freshly squeezed exotic juices I wondered, and what if they don't have "Ice Cream Buffets" on every corner in Uruguay with great selections of sweets to put on top? But I have to say I was looking forward to getting to Uruguay where they speak Spanish.
There have been times in Brazil we have been so exasperated with people´s unhelpfullness and refusal to even try and understand our odd Portugese word, but I think it´s mainly down to the fact that we met few who spoke English or Spanish. The Brazilians we did have a language in common with were kind to us and always really curious about where we came from as well as what we thought of Brazil!
One thing I will take away from here is the huge gap between the rich and poor - in the cities the rich seem to live like Europeans but a few miles out and life is completely different and light years behind.
