Brazil

The bus journey to Florianopolis was an interesting one, particularly when we got stopped by the police, who started to open up parts of the bus in order to find something suspicious. Finally, they left the bus with the packages they were looking for along with two people from the bus.

When we arrived in Florianopolis we made our way to the tourist information office and found an apartment in Armacao. Armacao is in the south of the island and renowned for being quiet, beautiful and full of walks.

Our next challenge was getting there. This consisted of two local bus rides and after working out the new ticket system, we were pleased to find the place without going wrong.

The friendly run apartment was pretty basic. However, it was lovely to be in somewhere bigger than a hostel room and the sea 50 m down the lane.

Once we settled ourselves we decided to go for a walk along our local beach. The sky did look a bit overcast, but we thought it would hold. The beach was not quite how we had hoped. It was clean and deserted, but was full of tiny pebbled sand which made it incredibly painful to walk along and each time we walked we would sink into the tiny pebbles, making it tiring and take forever to cross the beach.

By the time we had reached the end of the beach it had started to rain and with no bar in sight, we decided to keep on walking, down the road until we reached somewhere where we could get a drink. 200 metres on, we were in luck, though it was a pretty average place. We had a quick drink and then decided to head back. The next obstacle was catching the bus back and after waiting in the rain for several minutes one finally arrived. By this time the weather was pretty miserable, we were soaked so we decided to have quiet night in with beers, cheese and backgammon.

The next day the weather wasn't much better, so slighty disappointed by our lack of beach time, we headed into the centre of Florianopolis to look around the town.

We found the buildings quite colonial and very colourful. Our next mission was to find a bank and at this stage we were starting to irriate each other. Sam, then managed to lock the keys to our rucksack in the rucksag along with all our cards and money! At this point, E-J saw red and had what can only be described as a "Travellers Moment" as she exploded at Sam in the middle of the crowded streets about the situation.

After buying a stanley knife from a local handy store and cutting into the bag, everything was resolved. We were back to being relatively nice to each other in a friendly bar in the heart of the city. We finished the day with a night of beers and backgammon, sitting out on the balcony, hoping that the weather would improve.

The next day was sunny, so we decided to enjoy the beaches. We had been told about a picturesque beach called Praia Do Lagoinha Do Leste. Although it required a two hour walk over the hills, we decided this would be the perfect place, so set out in not the best attire of flip flops and shorts. The path quickly turned into an overgrown secret track of muddy rocks, green shrubbery and trees. We precariously made our way along the path, which followed the hilliness of the cliffs edge, so that we were constantly climbing steep hills and then descending them.

Two hours on,we came out from the trees and rocks and found ourselves in more bearable terrain, with a path amongst knee length grass. E-J was just beginning to enjoy the walk when suddenly Sam stopped still, frozen by the enormous tarantula dangling on one of the long pieces of grass beside his leg.

E-J then started to freak out saying she didn't want to go any further, though realising that they couldn't turn back, or wish to repeat the treacherous walk they had already done. After a few hysterical minutes, Sam managed to calm E-J down. Another 45 minutes later and we reached the beautiful beach and it was worth every minute.

The sea was amazing blue and crystal clear and the sand was a rich golden colour. There was literally no one on the beach apart from a couple of surfers who were in the sea.

After relaxing for a while on the beach we thought we ought to continue our trek to the other beach Pantano do Sul, where we could get a beer and a bus back. The next challenge was trying to find the path to this place. Some friendly surfers pointed us in the right direction, but still not totally sure, a dog suddenly appeared and seemed to show us the way. We don't know if this dog was one of the surfers or a stray, but it definitely knew where it was going. Occassional the dog would run off into the bushes to investigate a noise but then she would always return to check we were on the right track. The walk took about 45 minutes to an hour and it was a steep and very hot climb over the rocky cliff amongst the trees. E-J was a bit more wary of all the noises coming from the bushes, having already come across the spider, but Sam was just desperate to get out of this place and get a drink as we were out of water. We finally arrived at Pantano do Sul, hot and sweaty, feeling like we had reached civilization again. We walked onto the beach and had a beer in a bar on the beach. Sam took great delight in finding our waiter a dead ringer for Pete Sampras.

We then got the bus back, which disappointingly only took 20 minutes having taken us about 4 hours to trek in total. That night we had planned to have a quiet night of backgammon and a beer, but met our neighbours. They were a very friendly Brazilian couple who despite not speaking a word of English and us not speaking many words of Portuguese, proceeded to try and communicate with us through various hand gestures, objects and impressions. By 11pm, they finally left us in peace, with the knowledge that England had digital TV, mobile phones and Music Television.

We spent the next day on the other side of the beach from our apartment, and found it to have beautiful, fine, white sand, crystal clear sea and a few bars along the beach. It was a perfect day of total relaxation.

On the Sunday, we decided we would explore some of the beaches in the North. However, the only way of getting there was by catching four buses and after getting two buses in the wrong direction, waiting an hour for the wrong bus and then finally getting there by the afternoon, we were both in foul moods!

When we finally arrived at the beach, Praia Do Santinho we found the skies overcast and the beach not that attractive. Despite taking four hours to get there, we only stayed 40 minutes before deciding we'd better head back. A complete waste of time! The only highlight was the icecream shop. This place had every flavour imaginable and then an array of different toppings, from chocolate springles to gummy bears. The best part, was that you got to get the icecream and toppings yourself, so we both indulged in a greedy amount! That night E-J cooked her first meal in almost three months and we played our usual game of backgammon on the balcony.

On our last full day, having realised that the North was a bit of a dump and we were in the far more beautiful area, we took full advantage of the beach, soaking up the rays all day and swimming in the sea.

Sam's Comments: Beautiful, great way for us to relax. Annoyed that the tarantula meant that I had to deal with E-J's biggest panick attack!

E-J's Comments: Florianopolis was brilliant. It was the first time that we actually had a chance to lie on a beach and do absolutely nothing for a day without having to worry about the bus, accommodation and what to do next. I feel totally refreshed, bring on Rio!