CAMBORIU - BRAZIL

How exactly I ended up in Camboriu in the first place is probably enough for a blog entry in itself so I will attempt to at least keep the details of the story to a minimum and focus more on just how much of an amazing place the city was. After jumping on a bus in Torres destined for Curitiba, I was ´hijacked´ by a somewhat crazy, very beautiful and thereby rather typical brazillian girl (Alessandra) who told me I should instead accompany her to the beachside city of Camboriú. Despite this not being something a would normally do, her rather persuasive appearance.... I mean arguments.... meant that upon reaching Camboriú I decided ´what the hell´ and jumped off as well.

I think it is fair to say that I experienced more ups and downs during my time in Camboriú than during any other time throughout South America. The city was an amazing place and all around there were so many beautiful beaches and mountains almost to the extent where it was impossible not to enjoy my stay. However, being with Ale certainly provided its fair share of headaches and looking back now, it´s surprising that I didn´t have a breakdown at some point.

You see, Ale and her crowd are what the Brazillians term as ´roots´ people... I don´t really know where this comes from but my best guess is that is referring to getting back to dem ´grass roots mon!´ So, these people occupy themselves with very little except for going to the beach, lazing around and of course, consuming copious amounts of marajuana. It´s not that they are bad people, in fact far from it and many of them were extremely kind and lovely. It´s just that their lack of activity really started to get on my nerves after a while... that and the reggae music, which was the only music I heard for like 6 days and to which I will never be able to listen again.

After the initial 2 days of going to the beach, lazing around in rather dull weather, possibly grabbing something to eat now and again and then going out in the evening, I started to wonder if it was worth staying around for, however with the approaching weekend I decided to give it a few more days and just hoped that things would become more interesting. It didn´t !!! That being siad, I still managed to see alot of the surrounding region, including the absolutely beautiful beach, ´las bombinhas´ and I really appreciated the effort which Ale took to show me around and make sure that I was enjoying my time (if only she had been coherent enough to understand when I wasn´t !!!)

Without focussing too much on the negatives, I am glad that I managed to go to Camboriú and in fact ended up returning a few weeks later, a visit which I enjoyed considerably more. (This return visit however, was driven more by my desire to recoup a pair of jeans that I had left behind.... another long and crazy story). As I have eluded to, the visual scenery of the area was absolutely breathtaking and I did meet some really nice people during my stay. I think it is safe to say that I will never really forget my experiences from Camboriú, whether this be for good or bad reasons I cannot say but I guess this is all just part of the travelling experience !!!