Brazil: beach tips for Santa Catarina Island
Basti had resisted a trip to Brazil for a very long time. To get him interested in my dream country, I tried all kinds of lures. Among other things, I promised him many naked butts. And he should see them en masse right at the beginning – namely on the beaches of Santa Catarina Island.
1. Beach: Canasvieras
The island is a very popular vacation spot with Argentines, so we ended up squeezing in between their umbrellas, chairs, coolers, mate cups and thermoses on the first beach and looking at their bare bottoms. I deliberately write had to, because whether young or old, fat or thin, there just about every female bather showed a lot of skin. This was in Canasvieras. 3 nights we spent in this small tourist place in the north of the island.
We got there with two buses from Florianópolis. After our night drive from São Paulo, we walked directly to the local bus terminal (which is a few 100 meters to the left of the long-distance bus terminal) and first paid 3.90 Real per ticket (approx. 1 Euro) took a bus to Canasvieras terminal.
Since we only wanted to change buses there, we didn't have to pay another ticket (riding a bus is so incredibly cheap in Brazil) and could get directly on the next bus. Of course there is not really anything advertised at the terminals. We asked our way through.
Accommodation in Canasvieras
Arrived in Canasvieras, we checked in at the Pousada Doce Encanto (we can recommend this place; some of the staff even spoke English) and then ordered breakfast in a small restaurant. We got huge bowls full of fries, rice, ruhei and salad. And with huge I mean really huge! But you could already get a picture of the Brazilian portion sizes in the last post.
We were in Canasvieras at the end of January and the place was packed with tourists – mainly Argentinians. Accordingly, we had little space on the beach each time. In addition to the crowds of people and their beach equipment (most of them carry all the above mentioned stuff themselves) there are also quite a few sellers with their sometimes very large carts (I only say kebab stand)!) at the beach. This is what it looked like..
2. Stop: Fishing village Barra da Lagoa
3 days were enough for us in this place. Our next destination was the fishing village of Barra da Lagoa, about 30 kilometers further south (the bus no. 840 from Tican to Tilag). Because almost all accommodations were already fully booked, we stayed quite remote and a few kilometers away from the beach. In a newly built vacation home, in which it dripped through the ceiling (Brazil is just not Germany& ). The Fortaleza Lodge can really not recommend.
Café tip and Praia Mole
The good thing: Right around the corner was the super cute Café Paçai, where you can get great Brazilian coffee from the Minas Gerais region and delicious açai bowls. From the café we walked over the hill to the Praia Mole. That was about 2 kilometers.
And it was worth it, because we liked the beach best on the island. It is super nice wide and long and there is a bar where we didn't have to pay anything for great sunbeds and a big umbrella, but only had to drink something (and I always and everywhere drank coconuts anyway& ). In addition, on the way to the beach you pass a nice viewpoint, where you have a great view over the lake.
We also visited the beach in Barra da Lagoa itself, but it was as crowded as the one in Canasvieras. Therefore we took off immediately and walked a little bit uphill over the small canal to a small bay. Not far from here is the entrance to the national park, but we didn't go there.
In the bay was little busy, but there were no sunbeds and the sand was quite hard. After all, we got there 5 grilled cheese for 12 real& (ca. 3,50 Euro).
On the way back to our accommodation we stopped at Café Tapioca, which is located near the canal bridge. There you can get delicious filled tapioca pancakes (the flour is extracted from the cassava root and simply pressed on a hot plate) and good coffee from Minas Gerais.
Florianopolis
After our (partly rainy) beach days we visited the city of Florianopolis, which is located on the mainland. You don't think it when passing by – but the center is really very cute and worth seeing. At Mercado Publico, we ate delicious (and very filling) snacks at a tiny corner stall in the large market hall and even got free sugar cane juice with lime.
The next day we went by bus to Blumenau in Germany, about 2.5 hours away. Whether a detour there is worthwhile, you will find out next time.