FLORIANOPOLIS - BRAZIL

Craving some more pristine beaches and a kicking nightlife, I headed from the beachside resrot city of Camboriú, to the slightly larger, equally as touristy but more relxed provincial capital of Santa Catarina state, Florianopolis. I spent 4 enjoyable days in Florianopolis, travelling to various parts of the island in which the city partly straddles. The beaches here are renowned not only in Brazil but across all of South America and many people from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and even farther afield choose to come here for their summer vacations. The hype is definately not undeserved as some of the locations I visited during my stay were utterly spectacular. I did however choose to avoid the really touristy areas and headed more for the rugged extremities of the island in the hope of finding beautiful locations in which to take some photos and just relax.

My first trip to Santa Catarina island was to the far south, where I trekked over a mountain range to a lagoon and beautiful beach setting. Despite the rather overcast weather I passed a reasonable number of other people, all sweating it out in order to enjoy the beautiful setting which awaited us at the end of the trail. Having taken in the amazing scenery I walked back over the mountain and on the way back stopped in another picturesque little town where I was able to grab some great shots of the bay and village with the surrounding mountains looming in the background.

On day 2 I travelled to the north of the island and visited what turned out to be my favourite spot around Florianopolis, the fortress. It wasn´t that the fort itself offered a great deal in terms of history or scenery, but the entire package of the beach, rocky shoreline and imposing fortress all combined to give a wonderful vista which I went to great lengths in order to photograph. Having risked a possible drowning by clambering out over the rocks ´in search of the perfect photo´ I briefly visited one of the more popular beaches in the north of the island and then returned to the hostel.

My last day in Santa Catarina was spent hanging out with my friend Kristen whom I had teamed up with previously in Cordoba. After having a brief look around the main city on the island, we walked along the edge of a large lake and then over a small mountain pass in order to enjoy the last few hours of sunlight on a glorious beach. The scenery all around was absolutely spectacular and it was absolutely no wonder that the beach was still teeming with people even at 5pm. Having walked back almost all the way to Florianopolis (or so it seemed) we headed out that night, but unfortunately the lack of decent music (it was all Brazillian samba) meant that it was rather difficult to really get into things !

From a scenic perspective, Florianopolis and Santa Catarina island were amongst the most amazing locations I visited in all of Brazil, or South America for that matter. Despite being somewhat dissapointing from a social point of view, I would still envisage returning to the city during my next trip to Brazil.