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Florianópolis in Brazil is hands down the most beautiful place I’ve visited so far. It’s an island accessible by bridge littered with beautiful beaches and foliage covered hills. We arrived Thursday afternoon with Laura and Barry, an Irish couple who had been sitting beside us on the bus from Uruguay. We spent the first night in The House Sport Hostel which was very cool if a bit basic. They had a skate ramp in the garden beside the tattoo bar, pool table and fire pit. After a walk down to the beach we stocked up in the supermarket and had a feed of veggie carbonara à la Barry. 
We decided to move a bit further North along the island’s coast the following morning and after three buses, a bit of waiting around in between we arrived at our new hostel Barra Beach Club about 2.5 hours later. The hostel was set out like a resort with lots of small buildings at different levels housing various rooms and dorms. It was in Barra da Lagoa which is a lovely little surf village sitting on Barra Beach which stretched out as far as we could see. 

After a feed of salad and vegetables from an all you can eat buffet I decided I’d try a run – my first one since my last race. I headed off up the beach on the wet sand closest to the water where it’s easiest and stopped after 20 minutes to take in the view. I could see the village in the distance but I couldn’t make out a single person. It was like having my own private running beach! I turned for home to ran the 20 minutes back and was very happy with the way my leg held up and ecstatic to have finally gotten a bit sweaty! 

We stuck around the hostel that evening chatting to the other guests and I went to bed pretty early. Poor Peter must sometimes feel like he’s travelling with his granny! I was up and out early too to get another run in along the beach and a bit of gentle yoga afterwards. Seriously couldn’t get enough of that view! 
Breakfast in the hostel was delicious and afterwards all four of us headed out for a hike up and over the hill behind our hostel which ended up at Mole Beach the island’s best known surf beach. 

We grabbed some lunch and made our way back by bus to collect our stuff and get moving again. The guys in the hostel had warned that traffic could be pretty bad heading back it town so we gave ourselves three hours to get there. After a few kms we hit line of traffic that just didn’t move. We sat in it for about 30 minutes before making the decision to get out and walk the 2/3km to the next town to get the next bus. Of course 5 minutes later the traffic started to go again and our bus overtook us but we marched on nonetheless! We eventually arrived at the main bus terminal, a very sweaty bunch but on time for our 12 hour bus to Sao Paolo where we would catch another to take us to the beach town of Paraty. 
Florianópolis was about 18 degrees, so pleasant but not bikini weather. I’ve got everything crossed for higher temps in Paraty – wish me luck!