Florianópolis

I spent Friday and Saturday in Barra da Lagoa, a small town in the north of Ilha de Santa Catarina, or Florianópolis, as the island's more commonly known. Having become a bit bored of staying in deserted hostels recently, I decided to stay at the Backpackers Share House, which is probably Florianópolis's best known party hostel. Generally I avoid hostels that describe themselves as party hostels, but since it's currently the low season and the weather is bad, I figured that any other hostel would be virtually empty, and at least I'd have a chance of meeting some people at the Share House.

I think I made the right choice too, because it was one of the best run hostels I've stayed at, and it wasn't completely crazy either, because it was only about 25% full. Every one of the staff made an effort to talk to me and learn my name, which is pretty rare in my experience, and they also cooked good meals every evening, which most of the guests went along to, making it easy to meet everyone. Another bonus was that every evening at caipirinha o'clock (7:30pm) you could claim a free caipirinha, although that was obviously a clever ploy to get everyone in the bar and buying more drinks.

When the weather's good, Florianópolis is a big beach and surfing destination. I already mentioned that the weather was bad (it was cold and windy, with some rain), so the beaches were empty, although there were still a fair few people surfing in the sea near Barra da Lagoa. It was pretty good weather for hiking though, so on Friday afternoon I went for a walk along a couple of trails near the hostel. I began by going down to one of the bays just along the coast, from which I could see across to the northern part of the island (see the photo below).

I then walked up to a lighthouse on the top of the hill, and on the way back to the hostel there was a good view of the canal that runs through Barra da Lagoa, joining the ocean to Florianópolis's biggest lake, Lagoa da Conceição. That evening I had my free caipirinha, as well as two more that I had to pay for (damn, their ploy worked), and the meal was roast beef with mashed potato and vegetables - it was definitely more British than Brazilian, but I enjoyed it anyway.

On Saturday morning I went for a longer walk that took me south from Barra da Lagoa, over the headland and down to Galheta beach on the other side. There were good views from the top, including back to Barra da Lagoa, to Lagoa da Conceição, as well as to the south of the island. This photo shows the view as I approached Galheta beach, which as you can see here I had entirely to myself. I then walked back up to the top of the headland, where I took this self-portrait in a very windswept spot (as you can see, my third beard of the trip is coming along quite nicely). I then got completely lost while trying to find the trail that leads to where the canal enters Lagoa da Conceição (I wanted to get there because I could then cross over the bridge and catch the bus back to Barra da Lagoa). After numerous wrong turns I eventually made it down to sea level, then got lost again, and finally made it to the bridge and caught the bus back to the hostel.

In the afternoon I visited the Barra da Lagoa base of Projeto TAMAR, which is a charity dedicated to the preservation of sea turtles. They had about twenty turtles of various species in a series of tanks, including this guy and his friend in the photo below.

Most of them were living in tanks containing nothing but water, which didn't seem like much of a life for them, and I didn't understand why they were being kept there. A few of them were even hitting their flippers against the side of the tank, apparently in an attempt to get out. When I was back in the hostel I spoke to an American girl who'd also been to the turtle centre that day, and since she spoke Portuguese, she'd asked about why the turtles were being kept in the tanks. She was told that all of the turtles had been rescued as babies, and they'd now have to live their whole lives at the centre because they wouldn't survive if they were released. I guess the other obvious reason is that it gives something for people to see when they go to Projeto TAMAR's visitor centres.

Yesterday was election day in Brazil, with a new president being elected to replace President Lula, the man who can take most of the credit for the great improvements in Brazil's economy over the past eight years that have made it such an expensive country for me to travel around. There'd clearly been a lot of last minute campaigning going on, because on the way to the bus station yesterday morning I saw literally tens of thousands of discarded election leaflets littering mile after mile of Florianópolis's roads. How typical that after I've put up with seven weeks of very visible and often noisy election campaigning, it all ends on the very day that I leave Brazil.

I've now moved on to Montevideo in Uruguay, at the start of my final week in South America.