Day 29 - 6/3 - Rio: The Return - it’s back, and better than ever

I’d definitely come back to Florianopolis - driving to the airport down the east coast today, past the central lagoon, it’s very pretty! A fabulous combination of jungly and beachy. Out of the window you can see people in swimming costumes wandering around, or zipping past on motorbikes; colourful graffiti on the walls and buildings (turtles, parrots, Van Gogh-esque swirls, even some mirror mosaics); lots of hammocks suspended from front porches (it made me realise, this has been a hammock-less trip so far! I love a hammock…); and an abundance of tropical flora, with the tree-covered mountains and the flower-covered trees, in pinks, yellows, purples and oranges.

It feels like a place in transition: really modern near where we were, with a big highway and lots of shops, echoed by billboards advertising almost Ibiza-style apartment buildings; to the boxy low rise concrete buildings (modern but not “design”), often offering a wide range of eating from pizza to poke to tex-mex; to the charming old-style cottages, with lots of wood and plants. There’s also smart gated communities, and plots of land for sale - apparently this is a popular destination for holidaymakers from all over South America, and it looks like holiday homes are a big thing (more than hotels - we saw barely any of those).

The airport is also very modern and attractive, with those big planters I remember from our late night arrival. After another efficient airport experience, and 1.5 hour flight, we were back in Rio. Hopefully see you again Floripa (as those in the know call it…)

It feels like a year since we last arrived in Rio airport - not 4 weeks. It’s funny - as Kevin said, it looks a lot more modern than we remember, but I think that’s a recalibration of our perspective after the last few weeks! (Most places look modern in comparison with San Pedro de Atacama…) 

I still love it though - non-Rio-resident Brazilians we meet keep telling us how unsafe it is, but I love its look: it’s both very green, overflowing with trees on every street, and with surrounding jungle visible on the steep dark brown mountains nearly all the time; and very brightly-coloured, with all the graffiti, the painted buildings, and bright Brazilian outfits. It has a raffish charm which is right up my street.

Our hotel this time is on Ipanema beach - the OTHER famous Rio beach. As we drive through the nearby streets we get a sense of the vibe, and it’s more youthful and lively than Copacabana - lots of coffee shops and bars and restaurants, overflowing with young people in basically swimwear. 

We can see the beach from our hotel room: it’s a long, narrow sweep of sand, less curved than Copacabana, but with the sunset starting down at the right-hand end (the big draw in comparison with Copacabana - better for the afternoon sun). Not that it seemed to make any difference to the thousands of people on it - it was nearly as packed when we went out for dinner as it was late afternoon - they just turn the floodlights on.

Kevin had found a nearby steak and burger place, so we walked there through the sea of incredibly brown young people (for the first time this trip, I feel like the thing that marks me as a tourist is not my paleness, but my age…) 

And immediately it was different to Floripa - in response to our halting Portuguese, the waiter spoke English! And then, as Jemima observed, “it’s so weird hearing English not from us” - other customers were speaking English too! (Or rather, American - but close enough.) We were no longer unique.

And that was it. After a tasty dinner (highlights: the onion rings, and an incredibly salty but delicious black bean side dish), for probably half what we’d have paid in the UK - unlike a lot of South America, Rio seems genuinely cheap - we wandered back through the humid, heaving streets. 

When we walked in the hotel lobby on our way to bed, we passed three young Americans discussing which club they were going to that night… 

Even if I’m 25 years too old to REALLY enjoy Rio, I do love a tropical city.

[For some reason photos aren’t loading, either on wifi or 5G. I’ll try again later…]

Ciao Costão do Santinho:

Farewell Floripa:

Olá Ipanema:

Down with the kids:

Day 28 - 5/3 - Todo bem!

Our last day in the resort of Costão do Santinho, and on the island of Florianopolis, and “todo bem”, or “all is good” (a universal Portuguese phrase, used - as far as I can see - as greeting, question, farewell…).  

Things we haven’t done: anything energetic, leave the resort at all…

But things we have done:

• Kevin and I had our free spa treatment - a session at the water stations - different water massage jets (one so painful I couldn’t use it, the others very effective)
• Jemima had her first massage (while we were in the water stations) - a bit ticklish apparently 
• We did the washing at an amazingly efficient and modern place in the downtown area, which is also amazingly modern. So lovely have crisp, clean-smelling clothes!
• I bought some actual Brazilian Havaiana flip flops (and replaced my bikini, which, it turns out, didn’t make it out of Uruguay, like Jemima’s pyjamas…)
• Jemima’s done some maths, and read 4 long books 
• And we’ve enjoyed the resort: eaten in all the restaurants, swum in the sea, walked on the beach, had a caipirinha at the swim-up bar, and Jemima has eaten a LOT of ice cream 
• We’ve even done parents’ evening (afternoon for us) - from our hotel room.

Most of all, we’ve relaxed and enjoyed ourselves! (And tried to get over a rather annoying cough for Kevin, and cold for me - I’ve got through a LOT of tissues…)

We are leaving feeling much fonder of the resort than that challenging first day. And one of the main reasons (apart from the reliably lovely weather and good food), is because of the staff: unfailingly helpful, polite and smiley, even when we’ve only been able to communicate with thumbs ups, as with the two maintenance men who came to fix our air conditioning. 

And that’s been true of the guests too: I know it’s a holiday resort so people are more likely to be happy, but there has been a general air of joie de vivre, colourfulness and positivity around the place, with people proactively enjoying themselves with their families. 

If that’s Brazil, I like it.

And now it’s time for the trip’s grand finale: Rio! 

PS all of the post photos (from Atacama) are now up-to-date. 

The pits where they cook Kevin’s favourite barbacoa:

Lunchtime (on strike against smiling for photos):





Me doing it properly:



The fattest lizard I’ve ever seen scrounging for food (palm hearts, tomatoes and prawns seemed to go down well):



Jemima at her favourite ice cream station:



Sea swim (chilly and wavy, but very fun!):









Swim-up bar!:

Our most active activity:

Day 27 - 4/3 - Gracias, I mean obrigada

It’s been lovely. The sun has shone every day. There’s a nice breeze. It’s not too humid. I killed a humungous mosquito on the first night, but we haven’t been bitten (touch wood). The food is great. The people are so friendly and welcoming - from staff to guests. It’s even got a lot quieter as the week has gone on - I think we arrived at peak intensity…

We’ve had a wonderful chance to rest, recover, and transition to the return - it feels like coming home is around the corner now, and after being Away, physically and mentally, for the last few weeks, that’s really helpful.

I only have one small whinge. And it’s not really fair on Brazil - a massive strike against it, for me, is the language. 

I learned German and Italian at school, so have a grounding in them (and Latin A Level, although that’s less useful for travelling…). My French is decent, after living in Brussels for 2 years. And after many trips to Mallorca, I’ve taught myself functional restaurant/ taxi Spanish. 

It’s exhausting starting completely from scratch again! I spend a lot of time starting to talk in Spanish then changing it to my (extremely limited) Portuguese. Google Translate is helpful, and you can still make connections, and get by, with sign language and smiles - but I wish I was properly multilingual!

I think Jemima’s is the same - not being able to communicate holds her back from making friends. Whereas Kevin’s whinge is the lack of a decent coffee - weirdly it doesn’t seem to be a Brazilian thing, given coffee is literally from here. 

But these are all small things in the grand scheme. This has been just what we needed, when we needed it. Muito obrigada Brasil!

Beach walk (including posing):

Night swim:

Day 25 and 26 - 2/3 and 3/3 - “The palest person here”

After a few days, we’re now getting more into the swing of things. It turns out our first day was extra specially loud - lots of entertainment for a Saturday in Carnaval week; and now I’m feeling less overtired, I’m more resilient to it all.

We’ve also found our place within the frenzy - our quiet cabana, which I reserve, German-style and unapologetically, every morning; the lunch table one room away from the band; which bits of the buffet are the best (the grilled meat at lunch, done in huge pits outside - Kevin says it’s like the best roast dinner ever, with beautifully rendered fat and lots of salt).

There’s been a lot of reading, and snoozing, and eating, and not much else. Which has been very welcome, as Kevin and I are both under the weather - he’s had a cough since the last day at Atacama, and he’s now given it to me, alongside a lovely cold. 

Part of the reason I chose this resort is because of all the activities - from sandboarding to kayaking to a high ropes course - but we haven’t felt like doing any of it! And I’m relaxed about that - there’s been a lot of “doing” over the last few weeks.

Observations about the resort, now I’m not completely overwhelmed:

• It’s enormously family-friendly: big multi-generational Brazilian families eating or swimming together. There’s lots of babies being breast-fed in a relaxed way - the attitude to kids is very welcoming, just like Spain (one of my favourite moments - a little baby crawling at high-speed around the buffet tables, with her father and later grandfather standing over her as she raced around, to stop her getting trodden on - waiters and guests just deviated around her - very cute)

• Food is a priority: the buffets are huge, varied, and excellent. One thing I’ll miss from living in hotels is having fruit cut up for me for breakfast, and a variety of lovely salads at lunch-time. (The white wine, however, is rubbish: it’s a sweet Muscat or a sickly Chardonnay only - we had lunch one day at the paid-for beach restaurant with different options and shared a bottle of a Verdejo, our Mallorcan favourite, and it was a very nice change).

• It’s nearly all Brazilians - we’ve heard one Spanish-speaking family, and one couple that were either German or Dutch - that’s it. Definitely no other English people (which is a bit disappointing for Jemima - all these kids and she can’t communicate… But she’s still hoovering her way through books so she seems ok).

• Hardly any staff speak English, and most don’t even speak Spanish: this has been a real eye-opener - there aren’t many places in the world where no-one speaks at least SOME English? We’ve been getting by on my rudimentary Spanish, hand gestures, and the help of one man in Guest Services who speaks English - I visit him at least once a day…

• The staff are all lovely: we’ve had one young waiter from Venezuela who did speak English and wanted to talk about football (he watches all the European leagues); more surprising was the young waiter with a Joy Division obsession - he said he wants to go to Macclesfield (we honestly thought we hadn’t understood - Macclesfield seems an unusual choice for someone in southern Brazil?!) - it turns out, because there’s a Joy Division museum there. The majority who only speak Portuguese are enormously patient with our attempts to communicate and if they can throw in a “thank you” or “goodbye” in English, they’re thrilled, it’s very endearing.

• As Kevin observed, I am the palest person here, by quite some margin… And as I rarely leave the shade, that is unlikely to change!

That’s it for now - back to the cabana…

Cabana time:

Mealtime:

Carnaval entertainments time:

Day 24 - 1/3 - Brazilian Butlins

We woke up exhausted, dying for the quiet beach/ pool time we’d been looking forward to. It wasn’t to be…

We eventually made it down to breakfast, to a cacophonous room with lots of small children. And no tea (this would turn out to be the first day in c30 years I didn’t have a cup of tea). Then we went out to find a quiet, comfy sunbed on which to snooze the day away.

It turned out that this was not that kind of place. It was a huge resort with multiple pools, gyms, spa, kids areas, restaurants, bars, sports areas - even snack bars brimming with food and drink open to 2am. It was loud everywhere - music, people shouting, just noisy. And full of people - the resort must house a couple of thousand, in the hotel, and the villas. All the sunbeds by the pools were full. The beach had deckchairs, not sunbeds. After a fruitless and depressing tour around, we eventually found some free sunbeds by the indoor pool, not far from the main family pool - where they had a samba band playing. It was so loud, my headache intensified. This was NOT what we’d been expecting…

Lunch was a decent buffet, again accompanied by very loud music: in this case a twenty-person choir with supporting band singing what we found out later were Carnaval classics from the 50s and 60s - the lunchtime crowd were very appreciative with dancing and singing breaking out all over.

I felt like a complete spoilsport. Here were lots of Brazilian families having a fabulous time, and all I wanted to do was put them on mute, if not make them disappear. But we were very tired…

But finally, after lunch, we found the holy grail: comfy cabanas slightly away from the noise: comfortable, quiet shade. Bliss. I was asleep within minutes.

Things looked more positive by the evening. As Kevin wisely said, we were all going through a process of adjustment - this was not what we’d all been expecting, or looking forward to. We’d booked into the Japanese restaurant (one of 5) for dinner, and it was very tasty. Early to bed - we’ll see how we feel tomorrow…

Lunchtime choir (with appreciative audience):

Oysters for lunch:

Afternoon chilling:

Feeling slightly more cheerful at dinner:

Day 23 - 28/2 - Six degrees of separation

Today was all about the travelling.

We started with a fond farewell to Explora, including a final goodbye to some of our friends (Gerry, a lovely Chilean lady called Marcia who had been on a few of our trips) - plus a hello and goodbye to a Canadian couple who’d just arrived, who were in the same hotel with us at Buenos Aires! We even had time for pancakes at breakfast - Jemima’s first opportunity, so she was happy.

And then, just after 10am, the journey began.

1. Minivan to airport - 1 hour

A drive through the desert, leaving the oasis of San Pedro to get to the oasis of Calama, a large town, site of the biggest copper mine in the world. (It is weird seeing an oasis from a distance - it is literally a puddle of lush green in a sea of dry grey-brown - completely out of place.) Calama airport was small, but like all our airport experiences in South America, very efficient.

2. Flight from Calama to Santiago - 2 hours 

Domestic flight - all very easy.

3. Walk between domestic and international terminals, and wait for next flight - c 4 hours

Again, easy, once we had confirmed that our luggage was going directly to Florianopolis and we didn’t need to do anything. (With all these flights, I’ve had a low-level fear of lost luggage - it would be such a pain…) Santiago airport is huge and very modern. The usual stamping in and out as we were now leaving Chile (and the Spanish-speaking world! Back to struggling in Portuguese…).

Our 2.5 hours stopover turned into nearly 4 thanks to a flight delay, but again, pretty painless (apart from the most disorganised McDonalds I’ve ever been to - our first on this trip, and the famed processes were NOT functioning as designed…)

4. Flight from Santiago to Florianópolis, Brazil - 3 hours

Another easy flight - we even got fed! (Cheese and ham toastie, fruit, and chocolate - definitely one up on Ryanair.)

It was instantly SO different to Atacama - back to the tropics. The humidity hit you straight away, and outside the airport there were huge planters filled with giant green palms - we were definitely not in the desert any more…

5. Uber from airport to resort - 1 hour 10 mins

It was pretty late by the time we arrived in Florianopolis, but Uber was ready to help - they even had a designated signed Uber meeting point outside the front of the airport. Jemima was asleep within 5 minutes, so I spent the drive holding her head up.

First views of Florianopolis (which is a large island attached to Brazil’s mainland by bridges) - very modern, with big highways stretching up its west coast lined with interior design shops, or car sales garages. At the north-west corner we turned inland through what looked like the Magaluf of Florianopolis (fittingly called Ingleses), where people looked like they’d just left the beach, even at 11pm, and the bars were heaving.

Our hotel is in the north-east corner, and when we got there it looked huge. And from check-in, definitely a “resort” - we had keycards with lanyards…

6. Shuttle from entrance to our hotel - 10 mins

We were booked into the hotel, rather then one of the many self-catering villas at the Resort, and this was down near the beach. So our final stage was a shuttle ride to the hotel, where the room looked a bit more spartan than we were expecting, but with a fabulous view over the beach. Too tired to think any more, we fell into bed at about midnight.

14 hours after we’d started our journey, it was finally over.

Only one photo from today: the oasis of San Pedro: