Lingering in Lagoa

Not only were we on the WORST bus company possible, but I was positive I had a terrible case of strep throat. Our plan for a trip to paradise felt, upon arrival, more like a fourteen hour ride to hell. My first day in Florianopolis Brazil was spent in bed at the hostel. Thank goodness Jenna was able to get antibiotics from the farmacia for me.

Our plan was to stay in Floripa for five days to enjoy the beautiful beaches of the island. After my day of recovery, we had two days of rain that we spent shopping, exploring the town of Lagoa, and meeting wonderful people at our hostel. The Full House Hostel is Israeli owned and because I was in Brazil, I quickly realized that hebrew and portuguese were going to dominate my language lessons for the week. Shalom! Oi! And it was fascinating to watch Jenna speak spanish to the locals who replied in portuguese. Where am I?

We spent a night out dancing in Lagoa with seven of our new friends from the hostel. And to our surprise we ran into many more people we had met elsewhere weeks before! Saturday we went to a pool party where we saw even more people we knew from our journey. We all lounged by the pool and danced at the pavillion. It was then that it became clear to me that we were in a circuit of people traveling this continent. We are the "class" of 2010!

The two days of sunshine were spent on the beach. This was when we decided that we could spare two more days in Floripa. We also had plenty of deliberation about how to get to Bolivia, our next stop, from the coast of Brazil. Everyone we asked advice from shook their heads, called us crazy, and told us to book a flight. This was a fine idea except that we didn't want to spare the cash it would take for a plane ticket. We finally decided the best route would be through Salta, Argentina via Foz de Iguazu. It felt like backtracking, but we were told there was no other way. And then we got to the bus station. By chance we spotted a direct bus to Salta!! And at the counter were some Argentine freinds we had met at the beach. With a cooler in tow, and a plan to fill it with beer and shrimp, they invited us to stay at their beach apartment a few extra days. Ah, what the heck? Two more days in paradise....

The Argentines were wonderful! We spent the first night cooking the shrimp together and drinking beer while they played guitar and sang classic Argentine songs. In a land of portuguese I finally had the chance to be immersed in spanish again. More sing alongs the next night and then vamos a bailar!!

Saying goodbye to Floripa just kept getting harder. But Thursday we decided not to say goodbye to the beautiful island and our fantastic friends. Instead we made a promise of hasta luego!