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After 2 nights we sadly left El Uru and headed to Chuy the border town for Uruguay and Brazil. It has a main road and apparently one side is Brazil and the other is Uruguay. It was only a hour bus to there and then we had to look around for a ticket to Florianopolis, Brazil. We arrived about 8.15pm and our bus driver was like you better hurry to find the bus company and sent us on our way. We asked a few people about how to get to the bus terminal for Brazil and finally got there at 8.30pm. We read this board and it said the bus was at 8.30pm. Luckily it was running late so we got a ticket. It finally came at 10pm. It was supposed to be 14 hours but there were massive traffic jams on the way and we arrived in Florianopolis at 4pm. We knew we wanted to get to the beach so then we had to spend another one and a half hours catching 2 separate buses to get to Barra da Lagoa. We were happy to see that there were guys at the final bus stop offering accommodation. We followed one guy to his hostel and luckily he spoke Spanish because now we were in Brazil and they speak Portuguese. The hostel turned out to be wicked, situated on the river just off the beach and the only way to get to it was by a little boat. We had a dorm to ourselves for the first 2 nights which was $15 each and then we had to move into our own room for only $17.50 each. This suited us fine as we still got our own bathroom and own kitchen. This was really cheap compared to what some people where paying more for a 6 bed dorm with no bathroom and kitchen.
Our first arvo we headed down to a beach bar to watch the sunset and then walked around the little town to check it out. Our hostel owner Jose said that fishing was good from the front of the hostel so we got out our rod and did a spot of fishing. Definitely didn't catch dinner in this case we didn't catch anything.
The next day when walking though the town we bumped into Christie and Cam a couple that we had met in BA. They had been staying there for about 2 weeks and were going to stay on for another few months. That night we all went out to dinner at per kilo buffet place. They are everywhere in Brazil and are like $15 per kilo but you only pay for what you eat. It was ok but after dinner across the road was a per kilo dessert place which was dangerous. Imagine every flavour ice cream, cake, lollies, toppings and then melted white or milk chocolate. It was messy but amazing.
We chilled on the beach the next day tasting all the street food. They have guys on the beach walking around with little fires/BBQ to cook cheese on a stick on. It was kinda weird and we we rent really a fan but worth a try. The locals loved it. Also of course there were the cocktails on the beach which are always good. And we mustn't forget the meat on stick man and the crape lady who we spent a lot of money with. There were a couple of bars near the beach which we went to most nights but were pretty average but it was kinda the only thing that was going on this end of the island.
We went to this massive day club in Flori pa called P12 which is only on Sat and Sundays from about 3pm to midnight. A whole group of us went from the hostels in town in an organised bus there and back. We got there and it was so wicked full of amazing looking Brazilians - rich Brazilians. You know it's fancy when Leonardo Di Caprio has a house around the corner. It was right on the coast and people had pulled up and moored their massive boats in the bay. Still had pretty cheap beers though which was a surprise and you could just buy like 10 at a time in a big cooler bucked with ice. After the DJ by the pool finished there was a live famous DJ under the tent which was danced away to for the rest of the night.
On our last day in Florpia was Rex's 1 year anniversary so we spent the day fishing in a canoe and yes we caught 2 little little fish finally then we went down to the beach to met the others for a night of beach cocktails and once again per kilo feed. While we were at the beach there was a massive soccer match going on as well as a volleyball match which was good to pass the time watching. While cheering a whole heap of fireworks went of right in front of us. We never even saw anyone setting them up. But it was wicked to see. It was also kind of funny watching the drunk bees try and fly after being in our old cocktail cups.
It was time to check out more of this beautiful island. We had read about Armacao which was south of the island, the island is pretty small but it still took us 3 hours to get there. We had no accommodation booked and on the way there we met this couple that were talking to us about this hostel in town. With our not so good Portuguese and their bad English we eneded up getting off the bus with them and they showed us a few hostels. I just don't think they understood that we wanted something cheap. After about 20mins with them and no hostels available or way to pricey we left them angry that we had got of this bus with them. They kept saying that we were close to town but it took about 20 more minutes walking with our packs before we got to what resembled the main road. Finally we found this place that was still not that cheap but we were sick of looking. At least we were in town and close to the beautiful beaches.
At night we made this amazing beef stew and just chilled watching TV in our expensive room making the most of it. The next day we wanted to go to this island called Campeche but once we got to the tourist information we found out that they only let a max of 800 people over per day and we were too late so we headed south again on the island to this little secluded beach which was a 1 hour trek from the near by town called Pantano do Sul. It was a beautiful beach with only a handful of people there. We played Frisbee there for hours and body surfed. After I didn't want to trek back as we only wore our thongs and the track down was not good on the body so we decided to get the boat service that they offered. So we get into this rubber ducky and the guy starts the engine waiting for the perfect time to go and takes off straight into a massive wave. We all go flying into the air and Junior gets totally soaked as he was at the front on the boat. We were all laughing after a short scream. Once the rubber ducky makes it out to the boat it was a half hour trip back to the main land which was quite bumpy. I didn't have any seasick tablets for the first time but thankfully didn't get sick woo hoo. In this small town there is a very old favourite restaurant called Arante's which was started in the 50's for the fishermen. Back in the 70's students used to camp down on the beach in the holidays and go to Arantes to leave a note for their friends to explain where they were camping. Now today there are 100's of 1000's of little notes all over the building. Check out the pictures. We left a happy birthday note for Bush and Kath as we were there on their birthday. We had a couple of arvo beers and watched the sunset. The next day we were up early and ready to catch the boat over to Campeche Island. It was a beautiful little island that we just chilled at all day. It's a reserve so if you wanted to do any of the little treks you had to hire a guide. We were quite happy chilling on the beach although we did get sucked in to hiring a snorkel and mask and having a look round. Unfortunately we only saw about 10 fish. At night we went back to Arante's for a seafood dinner which was amazing.
We enjoyed our time in Florianopolis but it was time to move on which consisted of a 14hour bus trip to Iguazu.
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