The Life of Brad: July 2016

Everyday of April was spent in Florianopolis the Brasilian island city famous for tourism and 42 beaches in the state of Santa Catalina. Great weather, water activities and a good mix of culinary options full of seafood choices. As well the mix between salt water and fresh water beaches proved why the population quadruples in January and February, but not April! Yeah for low season and low season prices!!

The first day of April we road the lovely remaining 350 km of highway 282 to the coast. Campos Novos to Lages C7R7T3V7, a few spots of straight and construction, but for the most part very green and curvy. Lages to Rio Joao C4R6T3/4V6, straights through forest and logging trucks. Alfredo Wagner to St Amaro C7R6/7T3/4V6, treed curves.

Morning Fog riding. Amazing.

Green valley heading into the fog

That's some calm water and a great reflection

Lots of speed checks like Europe

Lages, much bigger mountain town than expected

Ricardo, who eventually lead the way to Floripa when
we caught up to him at a gas station down the road.

A little landslide on the side of the road

Through part of the European Valley getting close to Floripa. Much longer than expected due to great curves. Of course I'm not complaining.

Home for a month. Florianopolis (Floripa for short) and more specific Canasvieiras at the North of the Island. A beach front 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms with hammock and all we needed. I loved taking morning swims in the ocean and returning jumping in the pool to take the ocean off of me and my SUNGA.

WTF! The first thing you see
is this symbol for a national
department store.

Crossing the ONLY Bridge in, Imagine Rush Hour!

A second bridge for trains.

Nice apartment for a great off season price, if you can call it off season (24 to 30 C with a few days of rain over the whole beautiful month of April).

Beach front for a month maybe
too much time...?

So calm

Finish in the pool

Great nights on the balcony

Beach vendors as expected
CHEAP HAMMOCKS!

No dogs on the Beach! Can't read?

Are those dolphins? yep

Shot from Jack's place

Second balcony with a hammock

You can go for a swim in your front yard any time

Which sunset is better?

Welcome to the Neighbourhood and Neighbours. Ken Love and the Floripa Expats. Early in the month we met the very energetic and knowledgeable Ken Love an United Statesian who became a fixture in Brazil in the 70's when Brasila became the capital. Along with his buddy Jack a 90 yr old WW2 veteran who received a Purple Heart. They've had many good days here and own some very nice apartments. Great to meet all the Expats and I hope to see them all again.

Ken Love making the perfect
Caipirinha with Cane Sugar

Happy Hour

Jack, me, Ken

All kinds of exotic (to me) fruits

Campo Direct, just great and cheap!

Coppers taking down the local pot dealers (once a week)

High tide, where's a cart to go

Dolphins!

Other types of beach front accommodation

Good day to enjoy the beach bar

Man boats are huge out of the water

A little bigger than the rest

Jurere, a very nice beach

More Jurere

Main street shops

Cane juice right from the stock. It's really healthy! and used in Ken's Classic Caipirinhas.

First time seeing these water jet packs, very cool!

Bonny lands in Floripa. And why not, we had an extra bedroom and bathroom so I took a quick look at flights from Calgary to Floripa for 10 days and what do you know, when you want something to happen you find a normally $1300 USD flight for $500 USD!!! So, we gave her an offer she couldn't refuse or live without!

Welcome to Brasil!

Brad's Caipirinha

I have no words...

Getting the meat out of the coconut

Is that cousin Ron on piano?

Not a bottle opener?

Cost ao Golf Club - Not too many Golf Courses on the Island and I think this is the only one with 18 holes although as you will see in the photos I'm glad we only played 9!

Awesome individual golf carts

Manuel and Bonny

Aerated greens

I couldn't get enough water! And
you can't drink the tap so of course
it cost a bit at a golf course

Beach Time - A little tour of a few beaches with Manuel, Jessy and Bonny over a couple of days.

Santinho, you can see the Resort in the background

Santinho facing North

Praia Brava

May be I should swim in the ocean for the first time in
my life...

Congrats Bonny, you did it!

Good tool that our neighbour lent us

Praia Jurere

Beach Tennis, apparently
invented in Italy

Nice save, you know I used to play Badminton...

When in Rome

Diving at Arvoredo Island - Signed up for a couple Dives and brought the girls along for a little snorkeling. Of course we had a little practice in the pool first.

A surprisingly choppy sea between the main island and Arvoredo which Jessy didn't handle well. And unfortunately the dives were not great due to the strong currents that rocked the boat. We didn't even move dive spots and stayed in 2-3 metre visibility at a depth of 10 metres. And boy it was cold! The first dive was 50 min and the second only 25 min as I had ear issues and really didn't feel like seeing the "same old" from the first dive. Apparently it was my guides first tour and she was one of only two that spoke English. Regardless, I needed to have a refresher dive since I hadn't been under for 3 years!

Let's start here and if you get it we can try the ocean

Some how making a seal with a gap?

Off to take on the sea

A little Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Quite the yellow suit

Frustrated diver

Ill passenger

Coming back looking at the North Coast from the boat.

Canasvieiras dead ahead

South Island which is anything below the main city of Floripa needed to be explored and required two separate days as the highway divides South of the City. So, doing it all in one day involves a lot of back tracking and that's just not my style. Let's call them the Ocean side and Inland side or Beaches and Oysters, respectively.

Barra da Lagoa was the first stop down the Ocean side of the Island on the way to the South junction in Lagoa da Conceicao and then all the way to the end. Barra is fantastic and I need to stay here for a while next time!

Looking back to the island

River inlet

The town is full of hostels
Great parking for that Moto.

Lighthouse and fishing point

This bay brings in great waves for
learning to surf

Volley ball and lots of beach space in front of the bars

This tough old couple still reeling in
the big ones.

A quick stop at Praia Joaquina another beautiful beach.

Those shorts just don't fit the moto

Praia Joaquina

Lots of steep driveways on the Island

Lagoa da Conceicao junction.

Campeche Beach along SC-406

Some how the GPS thought this was a
main road?

A fishing beach at Armacao

All the fishing nets laid out

Good thinking spot.

Whoa, don't fall in

Armacao and Praia do Matadeiro make for another great spot to stay. Fishing on one side of the point and a nice quiet swimming beach at Matadeiro.

Check out the smile on this horse!

After the nice time on the point at Armacao it was back along the Ocean coast and all the way to Praia da Solidao (Solitude) where we ironically made a friend.

Good chat with this happy Brazilian

Armacao beach

Gorgeous

The end of the road was seemingly
near as the quality dwindled

And this is the end of the highway / road.

Praia da Solidao, just us and a
modelling shoot?

Truly secluded.

Of course I had to jump in

Except for this little guy

tough to part ways

Curious little fellow

And then the traffic backing up
for miles due to limited roading

South Island Recommendation - Never go or return during Rush Hour as there is very limited access meaning 3 km lines to return at a minimum!

Part 2 of the South was all the way to Castaway Beach which included a decent hike to get over the hills to it.

Cruising the quicker way through the city to the South

Much more quiet on the inland side

Hiking over the hills to the beach

A little more than a flip flop grade hike

People living here with no services

Castaway Beach or Praia de Naufragados in Portuguese. SC-405

Made it

Guarapa in the distance

Just checking the temperature

More residencies

They even built a church?!

Back to the start

More than expected, but great that we did it

Heading North again

The main highway SC-405

Rancho Acoriano

6 kinds, $30 USD, but worth it!

It's not paradise, it's like everywhere else, you just have to figure it out. Some photos to capture learnings, issues and hell why not food.

Fan repair for the owner, free of charge

Humata, tasty

The Brazilian way to prep mate.

No internet in the apartment so the lobby it was for 2 weeks!

Brasil has changed wall plugs and
Jessy's comp needs a ground so...

Best Calamari ever! Restaurante do Quinha

Amazing snacks by Jessy

Tasty German style beer

An open wrap type food with a few veg and shrimp
3 bites for $4

Basically the peanut centre of a
Reese Peanut Butter Cup,
no chocolate!

-Acai Berry-
Super healthy, but very fragile so you only find it in frozen
form outside of the Rain Forests of Northern Brasil.

The photo doesn't show, but we 3
ate this for 2 days.
Huge portions in Brasil.

$20 USD for 8 pieces of laundry!

Howdy neighbour

Watching NHL playoffs until 3 am due
to the time zone difference.

Sweet parking, considering pay parking is everywhere

Brad-esco Bank

Very caring of scratches with
the protective cloth on the nozzle

Thirsty??

The brown ones are more sour for sure

Honorable mentions - Motosuper in the city where I changed tires and had a few tweaks made including the repair of my starter switch, yeah! And Santo Antonia de Lisboa - A quick lunch about 20 minutes South of Canasvieiras was well worth it. Very similar to the inland side of the South part of the island where we had great oysters.

Geon (owner) and Rodrigo (mech)
Nice job!

Bumble getting new feet

Crossing the only bridge from
the mainland to the island

Sambaqui

Santo Antonio de Lisboa

Other Stuff

Ants never cease to amaze me. Seriously, I couldn't believe the size of the piece of fish they moved and how organised they were. Enjoy the video and team work!