Florianapolis & Porto Alegre

Florianopolis was the next destination on our list. Billed as a bit of a seaside resort where Brazilians and Uruguayans spend their summer holidays, it seemed like the perfect place to chill out for a few days en-route to Uruguay. We were greeted at the airport by Marcus who quickly dragged us into his little office so we could peruse some of his accommodation options. Soon we were being whisked away to the North of the island where we had read that the beaches and resorts were a little better. The apartment we arrived at was nice with it´s own kitchen, bathroom and television, and we´d managed to broker a small discount from him which meant we were only paying 12 quid a night. All seemed rosey, and although it was a little overcast at the time, we were hoping that we´d see some sun in the next few days and be able to indulge in a little beach action.

As it turned out, the whole effort turned out to be a little bit of a jinx. The sun never emerged in four days, the shower was generally ice cold, and the resort was completely dead, with only a few shops and restaurants even bothering to open. We did attempt to get into the city centre one day, but after waiting for just over two hours for a bus, were then told by a friendly passer-by that we were waiting for a service that doesn´t run on a sunday. Slightly annoying to say the least, and why the thirty other passers-by didn´t tell us this sooner we cannot be sure.

It was nice little resort, and we´d imagine that in the height of summer, when the beaches were packed and the whole town opens for business it would be lovely. Unfortunately, after a couple of days sitting around watching bad movies in the apartment, all we wanted to do was move on to Uruguay. We did however manage to get some pants washed, so it wasn´t a complete waste of time...

Porto Alegre

Jinxed forever (or so it seemed at the time), the bus for Porto Alegre was delayed slightly, which meant we couldn't pick up our connecting bus to Montevideo and so had to walk the streets at 10pm trying to find a reasonable hotel for the night. We had intended to skip Porto Alegre as we hadn´t heard a great deal of positive things about the city but it seemed we were destined to have at least one day there whether we liked it or not.

As it turned out, it was quite an interesting place to wander through. Similar to Rio, the shouty little Brazilian men were in abundance, and there were many markets to peruse for trinkets and souvenirs. It was our last stop in Brazil so we savoured the moment and just spent to the whole day walking and taking in the last pieces of Brazilian culture. A disgraceful all-you-can-eat barbeque being a must obviously.

There were small entertainment shows going on in the main squares which were interesting (a man diving head first through a ring with about 100 knives sticking towards the middle) and then what we thought was a show, but was actually a Gaucho-looking character menacingly waving a machette at a rather scared homeless man. It was only when we noticed his equally destitute friend sobbing uncontrollably that we realised the spectacle may not have been for artistic purposes. Luckily, (according to Sarah anyway) the police arrived before any blood was spilled. I personally, have never seen someone have a limb sliced off and thought it might be one to tell the grandchildren...

That was more or less our trip down the coast of Brazil. Not really how we'd intended on spending our last few days but sometimes you just have to take what is thrown at you... unless it´s a 3-foot curved blade possibly.

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