FlorianÓpolis

I tried to calm down and started to start conversation with the guy next to me....rather a young boy from the countryside of Brazil, a farmer! One funny story followed another, so time past and we got to Sao Paolo with two hours of delay. I ran to my gate to see that even the flight to Florianópolis wasn’t ready for boarding yet, that calmed me down immediately.
At 1 am I grabbed my luggage and moved slowly outside having the only thought of a taxi, that would bring me to my bed at the hostel. With WiFi at the airport I could luckily oder an Uber for probably much more less money. I got to my bed and just fell asleep...

Next morning I heard some German from the girls in my room and made notice of myself...we got to talk and went for breakfast together. It didn’t even take an hour and an Argentinian, Norwegian and Brazilian guy joined us and we all found ourselves in a conversation about today’s plans. You never travel alone :)!
It was raining nonstop, so what to do all day? Let’s have a barbecue! We got some things from the supermarket and started already in the afternoon eating and drinking....that’s how we spent all evening talking and simply having a good and relaxed time, that’s hostel life ;)

Finally next morning the sun came out and motivated everyone of us to jump out and straight down to the beach! Having two hours of sun and sea we got back to the hostel early afternoon to make lunch, chill, relax and talk for the rest of the day...

in the evening even had a small jam session, Marcelo with his guitar and I, singing some songs together!
Oh and as a little souvenir I had a tattoo done in the village....a permanent one and at a good studio ;)

I had booked a rental car for the remaining two days and Marcelo was joining me, so we picked it up at the airport around noon. Everything went to smoothly, we got into our little car and my offline maps from Maps.me took us South towards Naufragados park, where there was a hidden beach at the very South of Florianopolis island with the same name after a 40 minute hike through the forest. At least the girl in the tattoo studio recommended that. So we parked our car in Caieira, which was the last village of the road towards South and we paid like 15 Reais, but the parking was located directly at the start of the trail. Wearing my trail shoes was the only good decision, although they were still dirty and smelled from the Pantanal expeditions, because the trail was either steep, slippery or muddy! Besides the trail feeling more like a jungle walk than a hike, the humidity made us sweat a lot, but it was beautiful to be in the nature with little refreshment waterfalls on the way and we were rewarded with a stunningly beautiful beach.

The waves were calm, so even I could go half way in with my tattoo. Anyway we were kind of exhausted from the trail and decided to take a boat back to the bay were our car was parked, worth the 20 Rais per person!

We drove straight back to the hostel picking up some beers for dinner. The left over meat from our wraps the day before together with rice made a cheap, easy and perfect dinner for the end of day! Short after I went to my bunk bed being the first one in my 6-bed-room, could relax and use the rooms own bathroom.

We wanted to make most use of the car since I had to drop it off before my flight at 5 pm. While we tried to figure out our route after breakfast, a Brazilian girl speaking very good English came up to us and we ended up planning together since we had the same interests. From several hostel guests we had heard that the North was very touristic and crowded....just not what we wanted! She also wanted to go the same direction, again South to another hidden beach after a hike, this time a beach towards the ocean. We got along so well and simply took one car. Fabi was from South of Brazil for a training on the island and had come with her own car a bit earlier to explore the island. After a nice view point just along the road at Morro das Pedras we headed towards Praia do Pântano do Sul, where we parked the car and started hiking.

Similar distance as the day before, but way better trail conditions and we reached a quiet and beautiful beach....perfect weather, so we cooled ourselves in the ocean. The trail had something more to offer for those who were energetic enough....from the beach a half an hour very steep trail would take you up to an amazing view point on the Morro do Coroa. Marcelo was tired having a bad sleep the night before, so Fabi and I started the way up. It maybe wasn’t the best idea going up there at exactly 12 o‘clock with the most intense sun and a heat that exhausted us totally. But we made it up in half an hour and the expectations were more than fulfilled!!

The way down was of course a lot easier, but we had used all our energy to take the way back by the forest trail....so again a boat ;). Little more expensive, but also this was worth it having a beautiful view on the hills and rocks along the coast.

Just in time we got back to the hostel, so I could have a shower to get ready for my onward journey. Hugging Marcelo and my newly made friend Fabi and off I was from the welcoming hostel towards airport.
Dropped of the car as easy as I had picked it up and everything went well further on...