Florianópolis 4/4-4/8

At the beginning of this month I took a trip to the South of Brasil to a city called Florianópolis.  Florianópolis, also referred to as Floripa, is a small island just off the southeastern coast of Brasil and is the capital of the state of Santa Catarina.   

I traveled with some friends from school and we were quite the multicultural group. 

Me, three other Americans, an Australian, two Peruvian girls, and two Mexican girls all traveled together, and down the street at another hostel a few more friends from Mexico and France enjoyed the weekend in Floripa as well.

We decided to take a bus - a 13 hour bus - because it was much cheaper than traveling by plane, so we left late on Wednesday night and arrived in the afternoon on Thursday just in time to take a quick walk to the beach.

Here is the view of the ocean from the main deck at the hostel

On Friday we spent most of the day at Praia Mole, one of the most popular beaches in Floripa and then enjoyed the evening at the hostel with the new friends we met from all over the world.  I loved meeting other young people who are traveling and hearing about what other destinations they have seen in South America so far.  Some of them had just begun their travels, and others had been backpacking South America for months!

Here's a few shots of the beautiful coastline of Praia Mole

The last day in Floripa the hostel organized a bus to take a bunch of people from the hostel to the north end of the island to an open-air beach club called P12.  

It's located just off of Jurerê beach and has a huge swimming pool in the center of the venue with a swim-up bar and DJ booth.  During the day fun music is played outside, and at night large tents are set up on the other side of the venue to act as a nightclub.  

The other travelers and I were easily the poorest people in attendance and couldn't even afford drinks, but nevertheless, we had a great time.

My trip to Florianópolis was wonderful.  

The south of Brasil starts winter around mid-April, so I'm glad I got the chance to visit before the sunny weather goes into hibernation.  

The only downside of this trip was that I was eaten alive by "borrachudos", a type of bug from the mosquito family that lives near big bodies of water in tropical climates.  When I returned to school the next week my teacher saw the 30 bites I had just on my legs (there were many more on my arms) and immediately said, 

"Oh, I guess no one told you that you have to wear bug spray at the beaches here?"

Yeah... I guess not.