The final two weeks of our one month stay in Brazil took us to the Southern part of the colossal country.

Floripa

We flew from Manaus all the way down to Florianópolis (known as Floripa) and spent 4 days in a spectacular apartment (Pietra Flats) in a place called Ingleses. It was one of my more inspired accommodation choices and the ratings should reflect this…

Abi’s Rating: 9/10 – “10/10. Oh no wait…9 because the windows didn’t shut properly so it was a bit cold”.

Mike’s Rating: 9.5/10 – The dose of luxury that was required after our Amazon escapades. Kitchen, living room, dining area, twi bathrooms and a spa bath…divine.

The outdoor area was also fantastic and it would have been perfect had the weather played ball. Sadly it was not to be and we spent more time wrapped up in towels than trying to get a tan as the 25 degree temperature difference from the Amazon took its toll!

We still managed to have a relaxing few days and binged a couple of Netflix series. Aside from this the only things to report were some high class milkshakes and a major washing faux pas.

Inexplicably we (I) paid £36 sterling to wash our clothes. It was am massive brain fade and for some reason being charged £4 per kilo (It was most of our clothes after we had sweated an exorbitant amount in the North) did not seem a problem at the time.

Only a few minutes later when we were walking down the road did it really sink in. I debated going back for the next 10 minutes and when we passed a 10 kilos for £5 do it yourself jobby the decision was made. We turned around and marched back.

Unfortunately the richest laundry lady in the world played an immaculate forward defensive when I tried to argue our case as she claimed that the clothes where already in the machine. We left with our tails between our legs (I was frothing and exclaimed that I would be writing a bad review…Abi questioned this logic as apparently the woman had done nothing wrong and told us multiple times how much it was going to cost). We then had to suffer the ignominy of returning the following day to collect our prized possessions (only after securing a bank loan).

Curitiba

A five hour bus ride carried us up to the capital of Parana State, Curitiba. The journey was actually rather pleasant until we hit rush hour on arrival and crawled to the bus station.

As darkness had descended we (Abi) decided upon the sensible strategy of taking a taxi and we were dropped off where our Air BnB was supposed to be. After a frantic couple of minutes wandering up and down the street we finally realised how stupid we had been and the hidden door marked 77 was obviously next door to number 35!

We stayed in this Air BnB for two nights and were supposed to stay a further night on our return from Ilha Do Mel…we didn’t.

Abi’s Rating: -1/10 – “Someone staying there had diarrhoea and blocked the toilet…I couldn’t have a wee when I wanted to.”

Mike’s Rating: 3/10 – A couple of things to clarify before I move onto my comments. A) I don’t endorse a negative score…that is just silly and makes a mockery of the rating system. B) The person mentioned above was genuinely not me…it was another guest/person who actually lived there. But let’s be honest it wasn’t great…the owner told us she had moved the bed closer to the wall because the ceiling leaked, I appreciate honesty but it isn’t ideal to hear that when you have just arrived (the ceiling was actually fine to be fair despite rain). The bed was uncomfortable and so was the experience of staying there.

Moving on to Curitiba itself and it is a notoriously wet place. We were actually quite lucky in the sense that we managed a nearly a whole day of walking around the city without getting wet. We spent some time at a park that was a little sad in the gloom but I thoroughly enjoyed the capybaras. We wanted to cycle but did not have internet facilities to rent the bikes dotted around the circuit which was a shame.

A lovely little Italian cafe provided us with some fuel as we wandered the streets to take in the hustle and bustle of a city that was very different to the rest of Brazil. Abi really liked it and I was inclined to agree with her thoughts that it seemed a safer and better constructed city than the ones we had visited previously.

We managed to locate a Friends themed bar in a trendy neighbourhood and the burgers were outstanding.

Another slight transport hiccup befell us as we were about to embark on our trip to Ilha do Mel which meant that we had to get a later bus but this gave us some time to return to the plush mall that was located near to the bus station. (We had been here the previous evening to watch the Lion King film…it was quite good although Abi was miffed at the lack of Beyoncé because we watched the Portuguese version).

Ilha do Mel

Despite the slight delay in leaving Curitiba the rets of the trip to Ilha do Mel (honey island) went quite smoothly. Well actually it went according to plan…the boat was more akin to rollercoaster if we are honest but thankfully the stomach lurching journey only lasted 25 minutes.

On arrival we performed the customary ‘aimless tourist walk’ in search of our hostel as the map that we had been sent was a little deceiving. Having traipsed up and down the beach we eventually found a pathway leading away from the shore and asked around a bit until we found ourselves at Pousada do Ade.

Abi’s Rating: 7/10 – “Clean. Cosy Blankets. Nice areas to chill and the guy was nice and helpful. Could hear breathing”

Mike’s Rating: 6/10 – Quite basic but what we needed. I really enjoyed the hammocks. A lack of free breakfast was disappointing and there were a few mozzies around.

In total we spent 4 days on the island which in hindsight was certainly a day too long (although this was in part due to the continued inclement weather that prevented any sustained sunbathing).

After a quiet first couple of days (I had successfully downloaded and subscribed to a VPN so watched some rugby and football) we ventured out for a sunset stroll and did a little bit of amateur scrambling. We love a sunset and so we sat on the rocks looking out over the Pacific before racing the fading light back down to the beach below.

Our main adventure on the island came the following day when we spent bout 8 hours hiking from one side to the other and back again. Abi managed to spot a snake early doors which was pretty cool!

Our initial aim was a lighthouse on the opposite side of Ilha do Mel and it took us about two hours to reach it. This involved a lot of walking along the beaches but we also had to overcome a couple of minor obstacles. The first was a relatively short but steep climb up some shire like steps that took us from one beach to another.

The second obstacle was more tricky as we had to scramble our way over some rocks with the tide fast approaching. There were a couple of near misses but we negotiated it swiftly and were able to reach the other side in one piece!

The lighthouse itself was a little underwhelming but the climb to the top got the pulse racing and we recovered with a wonderful view out over the ocean.

By now the clouds had started to dissipate so we hurtled down to the beach and set up our Canga. We had brought our playing cards so we spent aa good hour sunning ourselves and indulging in our new found favourite game of Gin (Abi is annoyingly good at it).

The sun was short lived and by the time we were heading for lunch, we had quickly put our jackets back on as the temperature dropped once more. Lunch was served and it was accompanied by a colourful little bird.

We returned by the same route that we had taken and thankfully the tide was heading the other way this time so we had fewer difficulties on the inward leg.

The sun made a reappearance so we sat down once more and this time we were joined by a lovely Labrador as his owner made his way into the surf.

We were shattered by the end of the day but it was a thoroughly enjoyable expedition.

We took the next days rain as a sign to rest so we took advantage of the hostel hammocks before eventually setting out to the ‘Gruta de Encantada’ (local cave). It was a soggy walk and a very disappointing cave but Abi had fun playing with the tide.

We had a brief chat with a “cute” old French man who was staying in our hostel before dining on our customary mango, banana and biscuits combo and diving into another game of Gin.

A feature of our 4 night stay on Ilha do Mel was the daily Mosquito patrol that was conducted before bed. This involved Abi lying tucked up in bed (under many blankets as it was quite cold) with a torch while I skulked around the room with another torch in one hand and sudoku book poised in the other.

On a couple of occasions there was no sign of any mosquitos so I hopped into bed only to be disturbed minutes later by a buzzing in my ear which caused me to leap up and repeat the patrol process all over again. You can never be too careful!

Our time in Brazil was nearly at an end as we took the boat and bus combo back to Curitiba (where we stayed in an ibis budget this time) in anticipation of our flight to Foz.

Next stop the magical waterfalls and a border crossing into my beloved Argentina!

#WhatOddsPaddy

Was missing from the last blog which I am sure disappointed many of the fans. But it returns this time and the odds of a marriage breakdown dropped significantly following the poor living conditions in the Air BnB and an extremely serious incident involving and altercation with regard to the placement of a tissue containing a squashed centipede.

Odds: Briefly as low as 10/1 before drifting back out after our lovely day of exploring the island.