Florianopolis:
Flori was so much fun. The hostel was pretty amazing too. I felt like I was at a resort (minus the part of sleeping in a room with strangers). The view from the hostel was pretty amazing as well.
The staff at the hostel were all really friendly and fun to hang out with, and we met some pretty cool people while we were there. Each night we got a free caipirnha, which has line, sugar, cachaca, and ice in it. It tastes like a margarita, but is a little bit sweeter. I liked them. The hostel also had its own chef who was from Italy. She cooked dinner every night. It cost about $8 for all you can eat, delicious food. It was amazing! We ate there twice, and went out to dinner the other two nights. The first night we went out for sushi. It was pretty tasty, but the best part about the sushi was that they had a dessert roll that had strawberries wrapped in rice, smothered in nutella. So yummy!
We went out to pizza for the other night, and that was pretty good too. For dessert we had a pizza that had cheese, bananas, cinnamon, and chocolate on it. That was pretty delicious as well!
We went to a different beach each day.
The first beach we went to we went with a Brazilian girl and a guy from Belgium. It was really nice having the Brazilian girl with us because she told us everything we should eat that was at the beach.
We got this acai smothie type drink that I fell in love with. It had bananas and granola in it. I LOVED it, and I ate it as often as I could while we were in Brazil. When I come home (in July) I’m going to try and make it. Delicious and healthy…yes please! We all know I need more healthy foods in my life. They were also selling corn on the beach, which Talia loved, and cheese on a stick with oregano, it was pretty good too. The last thing that our friend introduced us to was pastal. It’s basically an empanada, but they use different dough and fry them. I loved it!
The second beach we went to was just around the corner from our hostel.
It was pretty nice too. We had a pretty relaxing day and just stayed on the beach all day. We went and had a late lunch, coke (with santa!) and pastel:
After lunch we walked around the town for a bit and then got some ice cream. The ice creams that we had while in Brazil were not the greatest; however, I did find a good place in Rio though.
The last beach we went to we had to hike up and over a mountain to get to it. We went with some friends we made from Canada, a guy from Texas, and an awesome girl from Israel.
The hike was beautiful, and it felt really good getting some exercise. On one side of the mountain we could see the whole town and on the other side of the mountain was the blue ocean.
The beach itself felt very secluded. It was a nude beach though, so that probably had something to do with it. This was by far the most beautiful beach we went to while in Flori. The green mountain came down and met the beach, there were huge boulders around the beach, and the water was beautiful.
Over all, Flori was really fun. We were expecting to see a lot of beautiful people, but didn’t really see any. We mostly saw people wearing itty, bitty bathing suits. I thought my bathing suit showed a little too much butt, but oh no, I was over dressed in my bathing suit ha. All the guys wore speedos, and I just thought it was so funny. It was just too much thigh for me ha. We pretty much saw every body type, besides your typical skinny body, while we were in Flori. In other words, we saw a ton of huge butts. Even the older women, who looked like they were in their 50’s were rocking the itty, bitty, bathing suits. So far, we hadn’t really seen anyone who could pull off a Brazilian bathing suit. However, at the shops that sold bathing suits, all the manikins had HUGE booties, it was funny. I meant to take a picture, but forgot.
The hard life in Flori:
Rio de Janeiro:
Our first night in Rio was pretty fun. We went out to dinner to this pizza place that was next to our hostel. If no one had told us about the pizza place we would have walked right past it. It looked like it was in some guy’s small garage. There were no menus, no prices, one table, and a TV with a PS2 connected to it. The pizza there was actually pretty good, so that was nice. They had ice cream there so I decided to try some, and loved it. After dinner, we went and saw the Christmas tree floating in the middle of a lake. The walk over was pretty nice because there were so many Christmas decorations out. I loved it!
On our way back, we walked along the beach and saw a couple really cool, intricate sandcastles. It’s so crazy how they can build these out of sand!
We were about to head back to the hostel and go to bed, but then we ran into our new friends we made. There were going out to a bar, so we joined them for a bit. It’s always fun meeting new people.
The next day we took a city tour. It was a pretty long day, but we saw some pretty awesome things! We went and saw the big Jesus.
Talia is from Colorado and is a big Broncos fan, so we took a few pictures of us Tebowing. Ha embarrassing, but awesome at the same time! Not sure if ya’ll have seen the SNL skit about Tebow, but it’s pretty funny, so check it out!
The view from up top was pretty incredible.
After Jesus we went and saw the street where Carnival happens. It was a quick stop, but it was kind of cool to see the main street. Next, we went to the steps in Lapa. These were really awesome!
The guy who did this had been collecting tiles for years and then decided to cover these stairs with all his tiles, without asking anyone for permission. He’s a pretty sexy man too, mustache and all:
There is such a wide variety of tiles. There are ones with different countries, states, and cities all over the world:
Famous art pieces:
Decorative ones:
Obama:
So so so many different tiles! I could have stayed there for a few hours just looking at all of them.
After the steps we headed over to Sugarloaf Mountain. We took two gondolas to get to the top. The view was amazing! Talia and I decided to be romantic and watched the sunset behind the mountains. It was purdy.
I don’t really know how to work my camera that well, and haven’t really figured out how to take pictures at night of lights, but I got a few good ones of the city. They are still a little blurry, but not too bad.
The next day, we were feeling a little adventurous and went hang gliding. One of the coolest things I have ever done! I have been sky diving before and was terrified, but absolutely loved it. I get scared jumping off a cliff into water, so I was a little nervous about hang gliding. The scariest part about it was that you had to run off the cliff. Oh man though, once we were gliding in the sky it was amazing. The view was breath taking.
After landing, I treated myself to an acai treat, and it was so delicious!
We went and checked out the botanical gardens after hang gliding. I wasn’t too impressed. It was something nice and relaxing to do though, so I enjoyed being surrounded by trees. There was an orchid green house that was pretty cool. Orchids always remind me of my mom, so I enjoyed seeing them. They had some really pretty ones too!
After the garden, we walked around for bit, and I tried coconut water. It was actually pretty good too, and healthy. It tasted like water with a fruit flavor in it. I liked it. Plus, it was just cool to drink straight form a coconut.
We decided to be romantic again and went and watched the sunset at the beach. It was really pretty as well. I can’t decide which sunset I liked more, the sun setting behind the mountains or the sun setting in the ocean. There were a ton of people watching the sunset, and when if finally set, everyone started clapping. It was funny. This was my favorite picture. I wish I knew the guy in it, the picture would be that much better. Oh well, thanks for being a great model guy.
On our last day, we went to the beach. It was pretty crowded, but we enjoyed a few hours in the sun. At this beach, we actually saw a few girls who could pull off the itty, bitty bathing suits. I got one last acai smoothie thing. I already really miss those; I could eat those everyday!
Something I noticed while in Brazil is that most of the women are very curvy and voluptuous; whereas, most of the men are just jacked. They all had huge muscles, 8 packs, and wore itty, bitty, speedos ha. There were definitely skinny guys and guys with big, jolly bellies, but for the most part the guys were very muscular. I felt like I was in a gym or something. Just thought that that was interesting. Also, it was really strange being in a country where I didn’t really understand the language. I really missed Spanish that whole week. Whenever we would talk to Brazilians we would speak in Spanish, but surprisingly, not many people understood Spanish. We got around and figured everything out pretty easily though. We had a really fun time. I’m so happy Talia asked me to go to Brazil!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!! Feliz Navidad a todos!!! Feliz Natal!!
Until Next Time,
Liz
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