Barra da Lagoa, Brazil, South America

Today was a bit of a wasted day due to a miscommunication, but it’s not the end of the world. I hung out at my hotel until check out time at noon, and then had to get out. I had been in touch with Graeme and I thought the plan was to go meet him and Hillary at their hostel and I could leave my bags there for the day. He thought I was going to meet them at the beach and leave my bags at my hostel.

I checked out of the hostel at noon, got on a bus and went over to the town where Graeme and Hillary are staying, but I didn’t know the name of their hostel. I was waiting to hear from them, so I went to Subway for lunch because I knew that was near their hostel. I hoped maybe I would see them walk by or something, but I never did. After about an hour of waiting at Subway, I headed down to the lakes and hung out on the shore for a while. Since I had my bags with me, I was a bit limited as to where I could go, and I still wasn’t sure if I was going to hear something from Graeme and Hillary.

A few more hours passed and I eventually found the Canadians coming back from the beach. They said it was really windy down there anyway, so I don’t feel like I missed too much. Plus, it was a pretty relaxing place to sit and chill for the day. We went out to a smoothie place and tried the local specialty which is acai berries and any other kind of fruit. I had it mixed with banana, and it was excellent.

While we were drinking our smoothies, the rain started. It was unbelievable. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it rain that hard, and it started so quickly. It was actually like it was pouring buckets. We hung out for a few minutes until the rain slowed down enough for us to make a run for their hostel. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to hang out in their hostel because I wasn’t actually staying there, but they snuck me in and we hung out on their balcony with a few beers for about an hour.

I headed out at about 6pm and went to an English pub down the road to grab a bite to eat. The Canadians had gone there a few nights ago and said the food was good, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a good meal before getting on my overnight bus. The food was very good and has set me up nicely for this bus ride. After dinner I had to get the local bus over to the main bus terminal in the center of Florianopolis. I picked up my ticket for the bus to Sao Paulo and just had about a half hour wait before getting on the bus. It’s similar to the bus I took to Florianopolis. It has the seats with footrests that recline to about 160 degrees, and this bus is about half full, so there is plenty of room to stretch out. Hopefully I can get a few hours of sleep on this bus as well.