What’s the Fuss with Florianopolis?

We found our new home in Florianopolis; Hostel Portunol. I immediately liked it. The owner was Chilean and it had a real hippy vibe, relaxed easy going with hammocks, a pool table, communal kitchen and an amazing free breakfast.

Leaving the ghetto kids of Armacao we figured we would see the Florianopolis everyone had been raving about but we were wrong.

Please feel free to comment if I am wrong please enlighten me because my travel companions and I are still baffled to this day about what the fuss with Florianopolis is. Why do people rave about this place? We just didn’t see it. I thought maybe we were both jaded by having travelled a lot in the world and seeing way more beautiful beaches. The place was full of Argentineans on vacation there weren’t too many Brazilians to be seen. The place was very commercial and looked very Argentinean. We wanted to come to Brazil to see a different culture but it didn’t seem like we left the Argentine coast.

My other theory was this, I believe a lot of backpackers on the Gringo trail go to Brazil and then quickly leave as it is quite expensive. They head into the country go to Florianopolis to party on a beach and then head to Rio for the sites and Carnival. Money is getting tight and Rio is charging 50 reals a dorm bed during low season so they may check out Ihla Grande or Paraty then head the F@$% out. So they don’t have much to compare it to. This just may be a theory please like I said before enlighten me. Florianopolis is not a true representation of Brazilian culture in my opinion.

Although Armação’s only night life was the Bell’s Company hostel full of ghetto hip hop youths, it was home to the most beautiful beach we saw on the island. The scenery was incredible to wake up to. We were right on the water, the waves lapped up on our patio as we ate breakfast.

Barra de Lagoa beach where the night life was located left something to be desired. Not only was it lacking in beauty, it also didn’t have table service so Caipirinha O’clock was a bit more of a challenge. It was also overly crowed and full of vendors.

Alright forget the beach we moved up for the action and the night life. Tracy was finally feeling better and we were ready to party. We had a group from our hostel, yes there were actually other people staying in our hostel! We took the bus into town to find bar after bar charging ridiculous cover. How can you charge cover for a sit down bar? I can understand if there is a DJ or a band but they wanted to charge me a left nut (a Brazilian nut to be exact) to sit down and drink at a table. I could have just stayed in the hostel. The bars that did have live music and DJs were loud, obnoxious and triple the cover price of the sit down chill out bars. I wasn’t about to open my asshole to this place. After much disagreement about what to do we gave up on the BS of Barra town and return to our beach. Tracy and I took charge and bought from a corner store a bottle of Natasha vodka, 3 reals cachaça and a bit of chaser. We took the group to the beach where we shot back the Natasha and cachaça straight from the bottle.

So if in Florianopolis we had to bring the party to us, then what is everyone raving about? I am pretty sure we were in the area where everyone stays? What is the secret we were missing? I know I can be a bit frugal but it wasn’t just me who thought the place was ridiculous.

Don’t get me wrong I had a good time and we stayed close to two weeks in total in Florianopolis. It is a nice place with beautiful beaches but as you know I am quite behind on this blog so I am writing this after having seen other parts of Brazil. I partied hard on the coast of Sao Paulo and in Lapa, Rio. I even had a few incredible nights out in Itacare. I saw the most beautiful beaches on Ihla Grande, Itacare and Boipeba that most beaches in the world do not compare to. The friendliest Brazilians I met were from Sao Paula and Brasilia so as far as partying with friendly locals this wasn't the place . All of Brazil is awe inspiring but if I were to rave about one place this wouldn't be it.