Brazilian paradise

Last weekend I took my first trip since coming here to a little island spot called Florianopolis in Brazil.  It's roughly halfway up the coast between the southern Brazilian border with Uruguay and Rio de Janiero.  Before I get into the trip, let me say that it took me around 8 hours to book the hotel and flight for this little weekend getaway.  Eight hours may seem like a lot to some, and well......it is.  As is expected when traveling internationally, things don't always work the same efficient way as they do in the US or Europe.  Finding a room was complicated by the fact that almost nobody lists prices or availability.  If you like a place, you have to email them.  I'm pretty sure this leads to them determining how much to charge based on how many rooms are left (like an airline) and also how bad your spanish or portuguese is.  Once you settle on a price, almost noone takes a credit card.  You have to wire half of the total before arriving to reserve and pay the rest upon leaving.  This becomes exponentially more difficult without a brazilian bank account which I don't have.  Many thanks to my brazilian friend Karla, who helped me with a lot of the above, otherwise the trip and this blog would not have come to pass. I only learned after the fact, that there are a few American travel agencies that will handle a lot of this brain damage for you so if you want to visit Floripa (the nickname) don't be deterred but the above.  Just use one of them and you'll be fine. 

Here's what the island looks like.  We stayed on the Northward facing West beach called Jurere.  I met up with Bruno, a buddy from Rio and one of his pals Rehan. They stayed in the popular resort and I took a little risk and tried a Pousada which had more of a time share feel to it.  It was called Pousada Casa Sin Nombre (House without a name) which sounds eerie but don't let the name scare you.  The owners turned out to be really nice guys and helpful in everyway possible. 

We went out the first night there to a downtown restaurant/club called Ill Divino. I was psyched that they had Strogonoff there because I had been thinking about it the whole plane ride.  Brazilian strogonoff (meat in a sauce with rice) reminds me of a dish my mom used to make for me when I was little and it's delicious!  We ate, drank + did some dancing.  I was blown away by the attractiveness of the girls and also how young some of them seemed.  A few were tall and looked like supermodels in training.  Everyone was dressed stylishly and most of the music was stuff you'd hear at clubs in the states.  Many didn't speak English, but didn't miss a beat singing along with Lady Gaga or Beyonce. 

Rehan, myself and Bruno

We wandered along the beach the next day and found a fun restaurant called Cafe de la Musique.  Good food and tunes.  At night we got tickets to one of the big clubs there called POSH.  We showed up at midnight and were way too early.  Nobody was inside and the few that were there were socializing/drinking in the parking lot.  That's where we met these girls:

 

Once inside, it was more of the same from the previous night as everyone was dressed to the nines.  Everyone was in great spirits and looked the part.  I haven't traveled everywhere but after that night, I say with confidence I've never seen more beautiful women anywhere else in the world.  Miami, NY, Vegas, La, Stockholm, Paris, Barcelona, Rome all can make strong cases but Florianopolis wins the prize.  We danced till the sun came up that night and when we got out to the parking lot, these guys were chilling by the cars:

 

 

Those are baby owls in case you can't tell.  They were NOT too happy about the scores of drunken dancers streaming out into the parking lot.  I'm glad I took a picture of it because that's one of the random things I would have forgotten. 

The next day we hit a pool party at the end of the beach we were staying at.  It reminded me a lot of a Vegas pool like Hard Rock during the day. 

 

 Since Floripa is not too far from Uruguay and Argentina, most people understand Spanish.  It's a good thing because my Portuguese is less than mediocre.  I do think Portuguese sounds more fun to speak compared to Spanish (or English for that matter).  It's almost like the mouth is half dancing when they talk.  

  

The next night we went to Pacha which was right next to POSH.  It was a lot bigger space including an outdoor area where you can hear yourself think which I always like.  

I look like a goofball in that picture, but believe it or not, that was the best one.  We similarly danced till late that night, but here were no owls waiting for us when we left.  The next day we hung out one final time on the beach and went our separate ways.  I highly recommend Florianopolis as a weekend destination for a fun time in the Ibiza or Vegas mold if you can get a hotel room booked....