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Arrived in the evening to Florianopolis which straddles the mainland and the island. We were staying on the island and had to get 2 buses to the hostel. We were pretty shattered and ready for bed when we got there but the party was in full swing. They showed us our beds in a dorm which was the highest part of the hostel up a small spiral staircase and had glass all the round it. When we got up the next day we realised how close we were to the sea and also how stunning the views of the sea, island and beach were. It was relatively warm weather but the wind was really cold and at night it was freezing -the glass wasn´t really enough to keep the wind out. I went to have a shower downstairs the evening we arrived but quickly changed my mind when I realised the shower had a huge open windon with no curtain facing a place where agroup of young lads just happened to be standing looking up expectantly!
Next morning we got the bus to the centre of Barra da Lagoa, which is a really nice area with lots of chic shops and cafes. Florianopolis apparently has one of the best standards of living in Brazil but people come to the bit we were staying in for the surf and as it was out of season it was fairly quiet, although our hostel was full. We then walked back which took a couple of hours and on the way we past some huge sanddunes that you can apparently do sandboarding on but we weren´t there at the right time unfortunately. We also stopped at a beautiful beach called Praie de Mole that was practically empty apart from a few surfers trying their best with the not so great waves. Whilst walking back we must have had at least 50 trucks and cars with men in beep at us -we would have been flattered had most of the guys not been old enough to be my grandad. In the evening we went to the hostel ¨cross dress party¨which was being held in honour of the hostel owner Juno´s sister coming home from Oz. Not quite sure how the theme fitted in with that but it was basically just an excuse for the lads to wear womens clothing. It was pretty funny (especially the 6 ft 5 rugby player in a girls size 10 dress) but also quite disturbing how good some of them looked in frocks.
We decided to leave the next evening and booked the coach for Iguazu Falls. In the daytime I went wakeboarding on the lagoon with a few of the others from the hostel. It was amazing when I eventually managed to get on the board and stay up. It´s a really good work out for your arms (I suppose it would be being yanked around a lake by a speed boat) and I could hardly move the next day. I went for lunch with one of the lads and then cmae back to wait for the bus. We were lucky enough to see a whale really close into shore whilst we were waiting and has saved me money on a whale watching tour! It turned out a big group of Aussies from the hostel were on the same bus as us to the falls so we had someone to get lost with when we arrived the next day!
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