Goodbye Floripa. I miss you.

The other day the rain set in. Big time. Typical considering we had rented motos for 24hours starting from 2pm yesterday (the rain started about 4pm).  So we braved it and hit the road again, only for it to clear up so much I am nursing one of the worst sunburns I have ever had. The beaches were amazing though. Sadly there was just not enough time in Floripa.

The parties are like R.100, it is totally crazy (and what is also amusing are chicks are ALWAYS cheaper). Needless to say we didn’t attend P12 or any of the ‘top’ parties while in Flopa. A samba party was as far as we got and it was hot and crowded, so I didn’t last long. After I sweated so much in BA that I lost my belly button bar I think being in bed by 2am was probably for the best.

The hostel in Floripa was absolutely amazing. The main deck and bar area had a beautiful view over the lagoon and the rooms were spacious and nice. The staff were friendly (even if often slow, forgetful and not all the brightest of people). Most days the power went out (normally during the evening rain) and the water went out too one evening. Always good fun. 

Back to the motos. On the walk down through Lagoa to hire some we stopped to take a photo where people had put rocks in the water spelling out ‘Brazil’ and (being who I am)I dropped my camera in the lagon. Ivan jumped in after it, but 24 hours of drying out proved yet another camera to be destroyed by me. The motos were great fun through. We hired them with a Canadian couple (Michelle and Ronaldo) and a friend of theirs Ivan. The bikes lead us to the manager of our hostel’s (Junior) favourite bar with post it notes all over the walls. We decided it exceeded the budget and headed down the beach a little and found an amazing place where the crew got a massive feed (no less than 10 plates of different seafood, chips, salad) all for R.75 total. Spike put this down as the best meal of his trip. It was followed the next day by the best drink of his life (a banana based cocktail at the beach). Clearly the hiring of motos was well and truly worth it on the food front for Spike. 

So many notes!

The crew at lunch

Each morning during breakfast there was a giant lizard that came to chill out (which we could see from the deck). Apparently they are called ‘teal’, but my google seach of this has left me confused. On the last morning I also saw a MASSIVE spider in the dorm. Probably around 15cm long. A couple of Brazilian guys were packing to leave and warned me about it, but I was pretty interested in taking a closer look. I think they had more of a fear of spiders than the average female. 

Our last night in Floripa was a good one. Making more new friends. Having good chats (and beers of course), another good feed and more sharing of music. It was sad to leave.

Apparently in South America you can get 50% off boob jobs. Whether that is true or not, there is still an incredibly high amount of fake breast around. For a country where all people, of all sizes strut their stuff on the beaches almost naked, it was interesting to see the amount of plastic surgery that goes on too. We are the most over dressed at the beaches. No bungy smugglers and g-sting bikinis. 

We went to book our bus to get up to Rio. Having left it too late, we also found out that you have to go to the bus station to book buses in Brazil (which was an hour away). There was only 7 seats left and it was a conventional bus. I was not keen for 24 hours on a bus which isn’t even semi cama! After much debate (and with the help of Lukas – fantastic guy who worked at the hostel) we booked plane tickets up. This meant: an expensive trip and an extra day in Floripa. The plane rides were not bad at all. Lukas booked us on a newest airline called Azul. On the second leg of the journey the flight attendant loaded us up with snacks. It was awesome. She gave us one of everything each. We looked like total pigs. I wasn’t feeling too well at all (this was all yesterday) so I took them with me to the hostel. I am feeling a bit better today, so hopefully we will get to see a bit of Rio today.

Brazil is amazing. It is fantastic to always have toilet paper supplied again.