It took us two days of driving to get to Florianópolis
View Florianopolis in a larger map
but Juan was a legend driver and we made plenty of pit stops that made the journey seem shorter. We stopped at the border town of Rivera, between Brazil and Uruguay where booze was purchased along with a new saddle so, yes, we stopped in a gaucho shop that was just laden with all the horse gear you could imagine. I so very nearly bought a saddle but found that I just couldn’t make such a rushed purchase (Juan had chosen his saddle in less than 10 minutes!) so consoled myself with a rope halter and quietly told myself I’d be back. A beautiful hand-crafted saddle (minus stirrups etc) costs US$120. An absolute bargain.
We passed through some beautiful countryside and all along the road were stalls selling cow skins, cow skin patchwork rugs and sheepskins. Nothing we could carry with us but they looked pretty cool, particularly the patchwork rugs. As if one stop in a gaucho shop wasn’t enough, we stopped again at another store to check out boots and I was tempted once more. To make matters worse, Juan decided to buy ANOTHER saddle and by this stage I was nearly turning inside out and trying to work out if I could successfully tie a saddle to my backpack. Thankfully we didn’t spend too long in that shop and we left before I had time to seriously think about it further.
We arrived in Porto Alegre on sunset and while we had plenty of stops on the way, there were no real photo opportunities other than this massive chilli that crossed under the road. Quite effective I thought!
Throughout the drive I kept finding myself thinking what a rich-looking country Brazil is. The harvesters were in the fields and the vibrant greens contrasted with golden yellows and the colours were made more spectacular in the late afternoon sun. It is easy to forget that, despite the beauty of the countryside, Brazil is not the safest country to travel in and coming from Uruguay we were going to have to get with it again and be a bit more careful.
We spent the night in a rather grimy area of Porto Alegre but had a fantastic meal at a Mexican restaurant owned by friends of Juan’s and, even though there were five of us, we were made to feel very welcome. As we arrived late and left early we didn’t get a chance to see Porto Alegre although I did run up the street to have a look at and get a quick photo of the square.
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We were in Florianópolis by 2pm the next day thanks to some demon-like driving by Juan over some rough roads that had the little truck jumping around like a jack-in-the-box. Again, we were welcomed by more friends, Leandro and Renata, who had invited all of us to lunch (L to R: Alison, Juan, Renata, Leandro, Kate and Euan).
Lunch was an amazing feijoada, a traditional Brazilian dish (the same as that we’d had made for us by Germans in Piriapolis) of pork, sausage, and smoked meat slow-cooked with black beans and garlic. It’s real comfort food and, accompanied with a cold beer, is just the best meal.
After two days driving and being stuck in the small truck we expected Juan to dump us at the bus station and head off on his holiday but, for all the gruff talk, he was so good to us and took up 35km to the north of the island to Lagoinha beach where Leandro's family have a posada that we could have a look at and stay in if we liked the look of it. We looked, liked and stayed….. The posada faced onto this beach and we were there for four nights, soaking up the sunshine.
The fishermen were out in the mornings drag-netting (its what we used to do when we lived by the sea in NZ and I’m sure there is a more technical term but that’s what we used to call it) off the beach.
The net was huge and heavy, taking a few people to bring it in
and, once caught, the fish were dumped in the sand to flop around helplessly while the net was put out for more
Florianópolis has something like 42 beaches to chose from and those that we saw were pretty stunning. Leandro took us to his favourite surf beach, Santinho, where we went for a short hike over the headland.
The hike took us to cliffs down to the sea but no beach so we took a photograph of us instead of the scenery…
Another day we bussed back into Florianópolis city and met Leandro and Juan for lunch at a great café in this square that did the best caipirinhas we’ve tasted yet and ate fresh fish bites with chips for lunch.
There are some lovely old buildings in the old part of town and the Cathedral Metropolitana had been recently renovated
and the Palácio Crux e Souza, originally the seat of provincial government in the late 1700’s, is now a museum and in pretty good nick.
This is the view from a lookout over the city and you can see the bridge that connects Santa Catarina Island with the mainland and Florianópolis city is on both the island and the mainland.
We were invited to a BBQ and got to meet more of Juans friends – Leandros brother, Cristiano, his girlfriend Carol, Cristiano's business partner Roberto and his girlfriend Rosi. Below are Cristiano, Leandro, Juan and Roberto.
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Rosi is Uruguayan and, with Roberto, had recently returned from a five month stint in New Zealand, so it was great to chat and find out where they’d been. They had been based in Raglan but travelled extensively throughout the North Island and spent a lot of time surfing by the sounds.
Before we said goodbye to Alison on our third day there we went swimming then had a farewell drink from a chap who had a small drinks cart on the beach and was making all sorts of wonderful stuff. We each had ½ litre of caipirinha (standard size believe it or not!) and by the end of that we were laughing hard about silly things and Alison kept saying “I must go pack…” as we dissolved in fits in the sand. We pooled the last of the money we had and shared a pina colada and that pretty much topped us off. Alison reluctantly went to pack and then came knocking at the door saying she’d spend her last money on the pina colada and had none left to get to the bus station in Florianópolis . Brilliant!! I thought that was just so funny and was tempted not to help out so that she would stay so we could spend the afternoon on the beach, but common sense prevailed and on the bus she went…..
After these four days we decided that Brazilian hospitality is legendary and, thanks to Juan, we were lucky enough to meet people that we’d have not met otherwise. In danger of staying there longer than planned, we'd booked book bus tickets days in advance – not something we usually do.
View Florianopolis in a larger map
but Juan was a legend driver and we made plenty of pit stops that made the journey seem shorter. We stopped at the border town of Rivera, between Brazil and Uruguay where booze was purchased along with a new saddle so, yes, we stopped in a gaucho shop that was just laden with all the horse gear you could imagine. I so very nearly bought a saddle but found that I just couldn’t make such a rushed purchase (Juan had chosen his saddle in less than 10 minutes!) so consoled myself with a rope halter and quietly told myself I’d be back. A beautiful hand-crafted saddle (minus stirrups etc) costs US$120. An absolute bargain.
We passed through some beautiful countryside and all along the road were stalls selling cow skins, cow skin patchwork rugs and sheepskins. Nothing we could carry with us but they looked pretty cool, particularly the patchwork rugs. As if one stop in a gaucho shop wasn’t enough, we stopped again at another store to check out boots and I was tempted once more. To make matters worse, Juan decided to buy ANOTHER saddle and by this stage I was nearly turning inside out and trying to work out if I could successfully tie a saddle to my backpack. Thankfully we didn’t spend too long in that shop and we left before I had time to seriously think about it further.
We arrived in Porto Alegre on sunset and while we had plenty of stops on the way, there were no real photo opportunities other than this massive chilli that crossed under the road. Quite effective I thought!
Throughout the drive I kept finding myself thinking what a rich-looking country Brazil is. The harvesters were in the fields and the vibrant greens contrasted with golden yellows and the colours were made more spectacular in the late afternoon sun. It is easy to forget that, despite the beauty of the countryside, Brazil is not the safest country to travel in and coming from Uruguay we were going to have to get with it again and be a bit more careful.
We spent the night in a rather grimy area of Porto Alegre but had a fantastic meal at a Mexican restaurant owned by friends of Juan’s and, even though there were five of us, we were made to feel very welcome. As we arrived late and left early we didn’t get a chance to see Porto Alegre although I did run up the street to have a look at and get a quick photo of the square.
.jpg)
We were in Florianópolis by 2pm the next day thanks to some demon-like driving by Juan over some rough roads that had the little truck jumping around like a jack-in-the-box. Again, we were welcomed by more friends, Leandro and Renata, who had invited all of us to lunch (L to R: Alison, Juan, Renata, Leandro, Kate and Euan).
Lunch was an amazing feijoada, a traditional Brazilian dish (the same as that we’d had made for us by Germans in Piriapolis) of pork, sausage, and smoked meat slow-cooked with black beans and garlic. It’s real comfort food and, accompanied with a cold beer, is just the best meal.
After two days driving and being stuck in the small truck we expected Juan to dump us at the bus station and head off on his holiday but, for all the gruff talk, he was so good to us and took up 35km to the north of the island to Lagoinha beach where Leandro's family have a posada that we could have a look at and stay in if we liked the look of it. We looked, liked and stayed….. The posada faced onto this beach and we were there for four nights, soaking up the sunshine.
The fishermen were out in the mornings drag-netting (its what we used to do when we lived by the sea in NZ and I’m sure there is a more technical term but that’s what we used to call it) off the beach.
The net was huge and heavy, taking a few people to bring it in
and, once caught, the fish were dumped in the sand to flop around helplessly while the net was put out for more
Florianópolis has something like 42 beaches to chose from and those that we saw were pretty stunning. Leandro took us to his favourite surf beach, Santinho, where we went for a short hike over the headland.
The hike took us to cliffs down to the sea but no beach so we took a photograph of us instead of the scenery…
Another day we bussed back into Florianópolis city and met Leandro and Juan for lunch at a great café in this square that did the best caipirinhas we’ve tasted yet and ate fresh fish bites with chips for lunch.
There are some lovely old buildings in the old part of town and the Cathedral Metropolitana had been recently renovated
and the Palácio Crux e Souza, originally the seat of provincial government in the late 1700’s, is now a museum and in pretty good nick.
This is the view from a lookout over the city and you can see the bridge that connects Santa Catarina Island with the mainland and Florianópolis city is on both the island and the mainland.
We were invited to a BBQ and got to meet more of Juans friends – Leandros brother, Cristiano, his girlfriend Carol, Cristiano's business partner Roberto and his girlfriend Rosi. Below are Cristiano, Leandro, Juan and Roberto.
.jpg)
Rosi is Uruguayan and, with Roberto, had recently returned from a five month stint in New Zealand, so it was great to chat and find out where they’d been. They had been based in Raglan but travelled extensively throughout the North Island and spent a lot of time surfing by the sounds.
Before we said goodbye to Alison on our third day there we went swimming then had a farewell drink from a chap who had a small drinks cart on the beach and was making all sorts of wonderful stuff. We each had ½ litre of caipirinha (standard size believe it or not!) and by the end of that we were laughing hard about silly things and Alison kept saying “I must go pack…” as we dissolved in fits in the sand. We pooled the last of the money we had and shared a pina colada and that pretty much topped us off. Alison reluctantly went to pack and then came knocking at the door saying she’d spend her last money on the pina colada and had none left to get to the bus station in Florianópolis . Brilliant!! I thought that was just so funny and was tempted not to help out so that she would stay so we could spend the afternoon on the beach, but common sense prevailed and on the bus she went…..
After these four days we decided that Brazilian hospitality is legendary and, thanks to Juan, we were lucky enough to meet people that we’d have not met otherwise. In danger of staying there longer than planned, we'd booked book bus tickets days in advance – not something we usually do.
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