Brazil's Beautiful Beaches
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2005
1
26
80
Trip End
Jun 17, 2006
Florianópolis,
Brazil
Friday, February 17, 2006
Turns out our hostel is run by a bunch of Aussies, and was chockers full of them. Seriously, out of around 40 backpackers staying there, 30 would have been Aussie, and the rest either from NZ or the UK. Kinda felt weird to be honest. But anyway, this was a sweet party holiday beach place. Here in brasil they have some oddities like buffet meals where you weigh your plate and pay around 50c per 100g, similar deal with icecream, you scoop into your cone/cup a bunch of icecream and toppings, weigh it at the end and pay around 80c per 100g. After enjoying the sun and some buffets, went out with a bunch of guys from the hostel, then there was a big beach party which went until 6 or 7am. Rockin.
Not many walking tracks around our town, but the next day I found a few nice ones, some through rainforest to hidden beaches and snorkelling places with tons and tons of fish, and up to lookout points looking out over the scenery. Took a bus up to a north-of-the-island beach called Santinho which was nice, with huge sand dunes and decent surf. More beach partying with a circle of around 15 great drummers with tons of people dancing around them, with beach bars serving delicious caipirinhas (brasilian specialty drink, made with a distilled sugarcane liquor called cachaca, sugar, and crushed lime).
Penultimate day in Floripa (as the locals call Florianopolis) had poor weather - overcast, intermittent rainfall, and it really changes the mood of the place.
Beach crab
Not at all ideal beach weather. So most of the hostel sat around waiting for the sun to come out, watching Pulp Fiction! After the rain cleared, I went snorkelling in a nearby river with millions of fish of all colours and sizes. The current was pretty strong, i don't know if i've ever swam on the spot before. That afternoon was the local island's beach soccer championship final on a beach which our hostel overlooks - some very talented guys and crazy fans, even for this tiny league. Really shows why Brasil produces the best soccer players in the world - their culture almost revolves around it (as well as music). Speaking of music, that night I went to a great reggae gig - 3 bands from different parts of brasil, in a bar on the sand dunes of the best surf beach around - Praia Joaquina. Heaps of dreadlocked guys, and excellent music, apparently the Brazilian reggae scene is one of the better ones in the world.Final day here, I had about 5 hours to kill so I visited yet another surf beach called Praia Mole, which is the best beach I've seen in South America so far. Perfect sand, great waves, clear sunny day, water of superb temperature, stunning surrounding scenery (hows that for alliteration), with beautiful people everywhere. Fantastic. More snorkelling and sunbaking after that, and then I jumped on an 18 hour bus up to Rio.
