I don't think it's matters how long the bus ride is for if its a good ride or not, I think it matters if its comfy or not. It was a shorter ride from Iguazu to Florianopolis than BA to Iguazu but so much worse because our seats didn't recline all the way to get a good sleep etc. We did pay for a cheaper bus though (as semi cama was all that was available) so I guess you get what you pay for too. As we arrived near Floripa (the locals call it for short as the word is just so long) we saw the beautiful, blue ocean, we hadn't seen it in so long! The cities we were stopping at to drop people off before Floripa had huge skyrisers and hotels on the beach and reminded me of the Gold Coast. When we arrived in Floripa it was cloudy and not the nicest weather. Unfortunate, because it is a beach, surfy town and the first time we have had bad weather all trip! We got to our hostel, finally, after the directions completely didn't match up to what was written in HostelWorld. We somehow got there through a guy speaking Portugese and helping us on the bus and pure fluke. The hostel was called The View and it definitely suited its name because it was situated on top of a hill and had a really good view of the ocean on our right and the lagoon on our left which the window of our room opened out to. Not only did we have a private room to ourselves, we had the whole hostel to ourselves! No one else was booked in! Not sure if it was the shitty weather and maybe it was low season or that it was just a fluke. It was cool, it kind of felt like we were away for the weekend in a holiday house/shack down the coast and it was nice and quiet, which we needed to relax but it was also a bit weird being the only ones in the hostel, kind of eerie at night and the guy at reception, who seemed like he had smoked too much weed slept in the dorm room adjoining ours and we had a shared bathroom with him.
Anyway, it wasn't beach weather, instead cold, grey and windy and all we had had was Oreos for breakfast on the bus so we were after some food. The guy at reception said to just walk down the hill and there are plenty of places on the Main Street of the lagoon. There were lots of restaurants but they kind of looked a bit dodgy and there was no one about. The place was deserted, which was weird coz we'd heard so many good things about Florianopolis. I guess everyone was hibernating because of the weather. We came across a restaurant that had a few people in there and was nice and warm inside. Even though we were just after a cheap kind of lunch, it had a TripAdvisor recommendation sign and looked like it would be a nice restaurant. The waiter spoke Portugese but was really nice. It's funny how much we didn't know what was being said, now knowing some Spanish words which we usually could get by on. We shared bruschetta with some delicious dips and also a shrimp, mushroom pasta with a cream sauce (they sold lots of seafood here so I just picked it out) which was also really tasty. Half way through our meal Matt realised there were these tiny bug/worm things in the pasta. He picked out about 4 so I started looking through my bowl and realised I had them too. They must have been weevils or something that were in the pasta or dried mushrooms and cooked up in our dish. It didn't matter too much as we were almost finished (we must have already eaten about 10 little weevils each already) but it was a shame coz it was really delicious and didn't really want to eat any more after spotting them. We let our waiter know. Which was a bit hard and awkward not speaking Portugese but he said we didn't have to pay for our whole meal. We definitely didn't expect that, nor was it what we were intending but he insisted and we couldn't really communicate with him every well so when we left we just put some money on the table to at least pay for half of what we ate.
There wasn't a lot for us to do this afternoon as it was raining so we kind of just relaxed in our room, checked the Internet etc tried to buy bus tickets to Rio which was t accepting our card online and just chilled out. First time the weather was stopping us from doing things but as mentioned before it was good just to have our own space and do absolutely nothing for the first time in ages. By the time it was dark and we went outside to get dinner it had started storming. There was another hostel on the hill we had seen on trip advisor which had a restaurant in it, it was close to get to in the rain and they would speak English we would assume so went there. We got a drink each. Matt didn't like his Brazilian beer and I felt like something sweet and sugary so got a strawberry daiquiri which I ought would be frozen but it wasn't and had fresh muddled strawberries, it was really yum! The drinks took a little while to be served then there was a loud bang and flash of light and all the power went off as everyone screamed. The hostel had been struck by lightning. It was pretty crazy. They took a little bit to get the power back up and running and it was ages by the time we got our hamburgers! We walked home in the rain and got some sleep. Coz we hadn't shared a bed in so long, it actually felt weird to sleep together in the same bed but it was nice to cuddle again and fall asleep in each other's arms.
The next day the weather hadn't cleared up for us. It wasn't raining but it was still really cloudy, cold and windy. I found out the news that my cousin Rachel and Rhys had a baby boy named Marley. The photo of him is so cute. Although he does have two pretty good looking parents so I'm sure he'll be a heartbreaker when he's older. So many baby's in my life now and 3 now I am still yet to meet, although I get to meet Sophia in a couple of days now :) We got breakfast from a bakery house down the bottom of the hill. I don't even know how to say cheese/queso in Portugese so the stuffed buns we ordered were good but had meat in them, so Matt had lots for breakfast coz he was getting what I thought was cheese but couldn't end up eating and I pretty much had two profiteroles for breakfast which were pretty good! We then went on a small hike/bush walk over the hill. The track was a bit muddy from the rain and I was wearing thongs but it was a really nice walk with some good views looking back over Praia Mole beach. It reminded me of walking through the National Park to Era beach or down the coast through the bush back home. The beaches in Brazil are very similar to the ones we have in Australia. Beautiful, blue ocean with surf and yellow sand and rocks. Maybe Brazil is a bit more mountainous than Oz. It was about an hour walk and we got to a small secluded beach around the headland with only one little house on the hill and a boat shed. It was awesome to come across a gorgeous little haven but it was so windy and it looked like the clouds were rolling over we quickly walked back. Otherwise if was sunny the water in this little cove would have had the bluest water and we would have had this little beach all to ourselves to relax on and go swimming. So happy it's going to be coming in to Summer and beach days when we get back to Cronulla.We then went for a walk along Praia Mole beach and we could definitely see the potential of this place in the Summer. It would be an ideal spot. A surfboard rental place, maybe a club house with like a takeaway shop. There were even about 5 bars/restaurants along the dunes with outdoor lounges which would have people sipping on cocktails and drinking beers and relaxing in the sun. I so wished it was summer time coz it would have been amazing to have lunch on this beach and have a couple of afternoon cocktails. Instead we were the only ones on the beach, we were cold and there was sand whip lashing on to the backs of our ankles as we walked. On our way back we did spot two small owls on the dunes which was pretty cute. I took a few snaps. Not really sure what they were doing up since they are nocturnal... we decided since it wasn't really a day for the beach we would catch the bus past the lagoon over the bridge to town. There were some cool surf shops and cafes etc. over here and a bit more people about and again could really see how cool this place would be in Summer. We had lunch in a nice cafe and warmed up with some good coffee and hot chocolates. We connected on to wifi coz we now had none in our hostel because of the storm. We are meeting Loz and Marcio in Rio which I can't wait to catch up with them and meet their new baby Sophia. Loz also Facebooked messaged to let us know that Marcios apartment in Rio is vacant for the next couple of days and we can stay with them! That's exciting and will be so good to stay with them. It will also help a lot they can speak Portugese and know all the local hotspots! We walked back along the lagoon to our hostel and had a lazy afternoon in our room relaxing, chatting and listening to Pearl Jam. Again it was so good to have our own room and have nothing to do. For dinner we walked to a Japanese sushi restaurant on the hill. The waiters are great around here and we ordered missou soup and sushi which were also really nice and felt fresh and light to eat. A shame the weather wasn't better for us in Florianopolis but we ended up making the most of our stay and enjoyed what felt like a relaxing weekend away from our big adventure.
The sun was shining as we woke up this morning. Trust it to be a nice day as today we had to leave. We checked out and caught the bus back to Centro. The water looked so blue and it was a Saturday so people were today out and about and riding canoes in the lagoon etc. there were three Argentinian street performers catching the same bus who helped me with my bag and struck up a conversation with Matt and I. Well as much as we could converse with none of us knowing much of each other's languages. They seemed pretty cool, nomad, gypsy kind of guys and were carrying juggling sticks and a drum in a bag. They were really trying to chat to us and I guess practise English and asking lots of questions etc. it probably made the scenario even better that somehow we all communicated with each other and had a crazy bus ride with three Argentinian street performers in broken English/Spanish. We arrived at the bus terminal and luckily there were spots left to book on the overnight bus to Rio! We thought there would be wifi as some bus terminals have free wifi to message Loz and also get her address. Oh well it was time to get on the bus so hopefully the bus terminal in Rio has wifi or we will figure out how to get it somewhere and get the address. Can't wait to see them and so excited we'll be catching up in Rio!
