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We put ourselves under a bit of time pressure because we only had a week to see Santa Catarina Island if we wanted to get back north to Itajaí to watch the boats leave. At least it was only around 40km (25 miles) away so we could always return to the island afterwards if we hadn't managed to see everything in a week. But we also had another date - the balloon festival in Torres 180km (112 miles) further south from 27th April to 1st May. Hmm! It was going to be tight seeing as there is so much to see along the way! Who said travelling is easy?
On our way south we hit traffic and rain near Florianópolis, a city that straddles the mainland and the island by way of a connecting bridge. We only went wrong 4 times on the short journey!!! Our overwrought GPS will probably go on strike at some point. We didn't quite make it in daylight and had to drive the last few kilometres in the dark. We parked on a street in Jurerê on the northern end of the island in front of huge holiday apartments in a very posh area.
I found a walking path that ran for 2km along the sea front which I couldn't see because of all the mangroves in between. It was also very dark but the path was lit up and went past some thumping and booming disco bars. The Brazilians certainly like their music to be at ear-splitting levels!
The next morning we saw butterflies and an owl as we walked to the nearby fort which was built in 1740. It was really hot and muggy again but we wanted to walk along the 2km path in the daylight. At one point I had to pull Kirsten aside as we walked along because she almost stepped on a black snake!! She screamed and then the snake slithered off. Somehow in her panic she still managed to get a photo of it!
Fortaleza São José Da Ponta Grossa - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
Hardly anyone is here at the moment because it's low season. In the summer, January and February, this whole island gets swamped with visitors. It's also a lot hotter so we're really happy to see where the rich people have their holiday homes, almost alone, in the off season.
We left at 3pm and headed further across the island and then south. We stopped for coffee and cake en route and finished off some lemon cake we had bought a few days ago. It was really good so I asked Kirsten where we'd got it from. Her reply was "a supermarket!!" "Yes" I said "but where?" Her reply was "From the cake shelves where else?!" Huh?? It was only when I was laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes that she finally understood the question!!! I think all this humidity has caused a mouldy brain!
We drove further, past some beaches with huge sand dunes and parked up at the side of a large lagoon for the night. There was yet another walking/cycling path along the banks of the lagoon and lots of people out using it in the cooler evening hours.
In the southern half of the island there were two trails that we wanted to walk - one on the eastern side and one on the western side. We headed to the eastern side first and stopped at Armação, a lovely little fishing village with colourful boats, along the way. We walked along a small beach and then along a boardwalk to a small island for views across the bays.
Then we headed for the first of the two trails which went to Praia Da Lagoinha Do Leste, a beach that can only be reached on foot or by boat. According to Kirsten the walk should be mostly flat and then we have the option at the end to go steeply uphill for views. As a consequence we weren't prepared for the extremely steep, in places 45%, extremely muddy trail that climbed uphill using log steps and very large stone steps. We should've known something was wrong when we had to walk up an extremely steep road to get to trailhead.
We were walking in 100% humidity, through the Atlantic rain forest, and were soaking wet from sweat within minutes. It had rained the day before and all the water was pooling in the log steps so we had to be really careful as it was very slippery. It took us 1 hour 20 minutes to get up to the top and then steeply down the other side to get to the beach.
We hadn't set off until 3pm so by the time we got to the beach we only had 15 minutes before we needed to turn around to get back in the daylight. We had heard that we could get a boat back but we didn't have any waterproof bags for the camera as we had intended to walk there and back. The beach was quite big and there weren't many people there (not surprising!!) so we just had a quick look and then set off on the return hike. It was certainly a tough walk and put us through our paces.
Back in Pântano Do Sul we started looking for overnight parking. The Brazilians are all very helpful people and we met Mauricius who went around asking various people about parking and showers for us but all to no avail. So we drove back to Armação and parked in a side street for the night. We had to make do with bowl washes and washing our hair in the sink. It's a hard life sometimes!
We took advantage of being back in the small fishing village of Armação and went for a walk across the estuary to a different beach. At the far end there was a path going uphill past various rental properties and we realised it is also a path to the Praia Da Lagoinha Do Leste (the tough, muddy walk we did yesterday) from the other side. We didn't go very far this time and just took a look at the houses before turning around.
Just to make writing this report complicated (!!) we drove back to Pântano Do Sul but went 2km further along the coast road where we parked up next to the beach in front of empty apartments. We went for a walk along the extensive beach all the way back to Pântano Do Sul where we went for fish and chips at a beach restaurant.
It was a very good meal - white fish in breadcrumbs with a small side salad, rice and a manioc "gravy" which is a very thick paste (and an acquired taste!). We had asked if they had cod but they only had it in fish cakes - they served us two of them to try for free! We really like Brazil! The meal cost us 84 R$ ($25 US) for the two of us including a can of Guarana juice which tastes very much like Vimto.
We walked back down the beach and along to the far end before returning to Winnietwo. I think we walked around 6km in total which isn't that much considering there are 7,000 km of beaches in this country! Now that's quite a lot of walking!
Kirsten used up all our battery power on the computer that night so the fridge had been switched off for too long. Then we decided to stay another night and the contents of our fridge suffered somewhat! On this island we are only driving a few kilometres each day so it's not enough to charge our back battery. We have a solar panel but it's not enough to run the fridge for 24 hours. So if the fridge is switched off for too long in these hot conditions we end up having to throw a few things out.
We drove over to the western side of the island and stopped at Ribeirão Da Ilha for a look at the church. This place is obviously famous for oysters because there were several oyster restaurants here, one of which used a former pier as its dining area.
Down at the southern end on the western side we drove to the trail head for the second walk. When Claudia and Uwe were here two years ago they were allowed to plug in for the night. So we asked if it was possible and found out we could plug in and park for the night for 20R$ ($6-50 US) - great deal! Now we had power to recharge our battery and keep our fridge running.
We walked along the trail over the tops to get to another beach - Praia Dos Naufragados - that can only be reached by boat or on foot. This walk was a lot gentler than the first. It still went uphill but the path was a lot easier to negotiate and only took us 45 minutes. We also walked across and uphill to the lighthouse.
The next morning we were woken up at 7am by loud children! It was a Saturday and the car park was filling up - we wouldn't have long before we got parked in! So we packed up and drove back north, stopping at a restaurant to get WiFi so we could watch our team play. They actually won 1-0 even though we missed the goal because just a few seconds before they scored, our internet connection died! Typical! It was at least 10 minutes later when we finally got the connection back and found out we were in the lead. We also missed the last 5 minutes of the match because the connection went again. It took ages to get the connection back and we had to look up the result! I think we are living proof that bad internet connections cause grey hair!!!
Before we left the island we went into the centre of Florianópolis where we walked through an indoor market that was packed with people eating the local fish and around the empty streets to look at various murals and buildings. All the shops were shut even though it was only lunch time on a Saturday.
We headed back north along the busy toll road and dual carriageway to go to back to Itajaí and the Volvo Ocean Race but only did 45km when we got stuck in a massive traffic jam about 40km south of Itajaí. Nothing was moving and there was no traffic coming in the other direction. We managed to crawl about 300 metres in 20 minutes! There must be an accident that's blocking all four lanes!
Up ahead there was a small village and a road side restaurant. I didn't see the point in sitting in a traffic jam so once we got to the exit I pulled off and we went to ask if anyone knew what was going on. Apparently there were two accidents one on each side of the dual carriageway but about 10 km apart.
There was no other way around the traffic jam so we parked up in front of the restaurant at 3-45pm and waited. By 6pm it was getting dark and the traffic was still crawling along so we asked the restaurant owner if we could stay for the night. Yes - and we could also plug in at the rear of the building! Have I mentioned how nice the Brazilians are?!
