Florianópolis, Brazil

One of the guys at our hostel in Sao Paulo had booked us in the First Class compartment of the 11 hours coach to Florianopolis,  but neither of us slept too well as a fat Brazilian bloke kept snoring the entire way! We were promised an open bar but all we found was a small fridge with cups of water. Sam tried to get Jo to listen the Ricky Gervias podcasts to lighten the mood, but his laugh just seemed to make her more upset!

Fishing boat on the local beach

We arrived to find that the bus drivers were on strike, so we had to ignore all of our instructions and jump in a local's minibus with the hope that we'd get to Barra Lagoa - a small fishing village and home to the World Surfing Championships...

View from our hostel

Our hostel had an amazing location overlooking one of the smaller beaches in the village, although it was shut because the villagers were casting a giant net across the bay so that they could trawl the waters for fish... Luckily there were still loads of other beaches in the local villages which were even nicer!

At Praia Mole

The weather was a lot cooler than in any of the other towns that we´ve been to so far, but it was perfect for laying in a hammock and reading! We met lots of interesting people from all around the world, full of ideas of where we should go next. We met a zoo keeper from Maidstone, off to work as an elephant handler in Botswana! A lot of time was spent playing pool - both of us improved quite a bit, although it´s unlikely that either of us will be sharking anyone anytime soon... We even spent half a day cleaning our clothes by hand - turns out Jo was a washer lady in a previous life and Sam's underpants are now spotless!

We took a short hike along the coast to see some natural pools. Jo has gained a bit of a reputation with the local stray dogs as someone who will give them attention, so we were followed by a group of dogs for the journey... And she wonders why she's covered in bites! She also managed to break one of her flip flops half way there, so Sam came up with the ingenious idea of strapping her hostel wristband round her foot to keep it secure!

We've now got a 14 hour journey to the Iguazu Falls, it's our last stop in Brazil before we hit Argentina.