Welcome to Floripa
Arrived in Florianopolis (Floripa) after 10 hours or so on the coach, overjoyed to find the sun shining, the temperature warm without being melting and the humidity much lower. Managed to navigate the local bus system across the Ilha de Santa Catarina on which the city sits to the satellite town of Centro da Lagoa, where Tucano House, my current abode, is.
After surviving my first long-distance bus journey, I savoured the delights of a nice por quilo lunch and an internet cafe with a half-decent Skype connection - this allowed me to finally ring up Expedia and get my "onward travel" flight out of Brasil cancelled - this I had bought so that if there was any problem either with Brasilian immigration or with TAP when I came to check-in with a 6-month ticket, then I could show onward travel. Sounds a bit overkill? Well, this is the kind of thing I had to advise people to do whilst happily beavering away at Trailfinders, in order to cover the company's collective derriere in the event of someone being refused boarding. In this case, proved to be utter hogwash - nobody batted an eyelid at either the airline or immigration - so I've submitted the ticket for a refund.
Got my stuff checked in, hopped on a local bus to Praia do Mole (the most popular local beach), where I got repeatedly slapped around by the waves, having a whale of a time, and managed to finish my latest cheap and tacky thriller from the book exchanges whilst sheltering happily in my chair under my parasol. No sunburn, a fair bit of time in the sea, and a bit of chill-out time. Bliss.
Back at the hostel that evening, there was a big communal meal - for most people this was Lasagne, but thanks to my cheese aversion, I got mountains of chicken risotto instead, which went down very nicely with the usual beers and caipirinhas (incidentally, if you come to Brasil don't drink the Nova Schin beer - it's really rather bad), and I got chatting with various of my companions, notably a couple of French lads (Vincent and Romain) and a group of Brasilian girls (Ana, Mariana, Manuela and Biatriz) as well as the usual hordes of Aussies. Various of the group headed for a rumoured beach party over at Praia Joaquina, but I have to admit I just headed for my bed.
After surviving my first long-distance bus journey, I savoured the delights of a nice por quilo lunch and an internet cafe with a half-decent Skype connection - this allowed me to finally ring up Expedia and get my "onward travel" flight out of Brasil cancelled - this I had bought so that if there was any problem either with Brasilian immigration or with TAP when I came to check-in with a 6-month ticket, then I could show onward travel. Sounds a bit overkill? Well, this is the kind of thing I had to advise people to do whilst happily beavering away at Trailfinders, in order to cover the company's collective derriere in the event of someone being refused boarding. In this case, proved to be utter hogwash - nobody batted an eyelid at either the airline or immigration - so I've submitted the ticket for a refund.
Got my stuff checked in, hopped on a local bus to Praia do Mole (the most popular local beach), where I got repeatedly slapped around by the waves, having a whale of a time, and managed to finish my latest cheap and tacky thriller from the book exchanges whilst sheltering happily in my chair under my parasol. No sunburn, a fair bit of time in the sea, and a bit of chill-out time. Bliss.
Back at the hostel that evening, there was a big communal meal - for most people this was Lasagne, but thanks to my cheese aversion, I got mountains of chicken risotto instead, which went down very nicely with the usual beers and caipirinhas (incidentally, if you come to Brasil don't drink the Nova Schin beer - it's really rather bad), and I got chatting with various of my companions, notably a couple of French lads (Vincent and Romain) and a group of Brasilian girls (Ana, Mariana, Manuela and Biatriz) as well as the usual hordes of Aussies. Various of the group headed for a rumoured beach party over at Praia Joaquina, but I have to admit I just headed for my bed.
posted by Pat at 12:00 pm
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