The Fantastic Flor
Floripa is situated on Ilha de Santa Catarina, a small island filled with beautiful beaches and easy-to-navigate roads. We rented a car and made ourselves at home in our cozy chalet. After Andrew surfed for a bit (and Danielle and I made admirable attempts), we planned to lounge around the rest of the day, but a local we met became our private guide (and Portuguese teacher). The beaches we considered paradise, Gisella called her backyard. She knew the island “como la palma de su mano,” and was eager to lead us on a small hike to her favorite cove.
Although Gisella had to leave while we were still jumping off rocks, we reunited at the dunes the next morning. We carefully chose our boards and then gave it our best on the sand mountains. Like skiing on snow, the runs varied in difficulty. Danielle stuck with the bunny slope, while Andrew, Ricardo and I tumbled down the blacks. If Gisella (and by Gisella, I mean a girl) could do it, we could too, right? With sweat dripping and sand sticking, we were whining about chairlifts at the bottom of the steepest dune. Luckily, the ocean was in sight, and a quick splash and cold coconut were the perfect remedies.
Where did the time go? We had just arrived to Floripa and just met Gisella before we had to say goodbye to both to move on to Iguazu. At least we have our sunburns to remember the good times.
You better be kidding about the sunburn. I can take the mugging, the punch in the face and worrying about the safety of watersports but the thought of you with a sunburn will keep me up nights.
March 8th, 2006 at 4:50 pmI am absolutely jealous about this. How I would love to do this with you! Leli, if we are going to go sky diving for your 21st, we have to do it along with Charlie and Andrew. We will have to bring them along. Let me know if you want to call my friends in Buenos Aires. Have a blast all of you, and most importantly all you men take care of my baby!
March 8th, 2006 at 10:07 pmHi guys: Have fun on the bus ride!! Chalk it up to experience!! You will have to make up for lost time in Buenos Aires! These are memories you will be telling your children about, and then they will be doing them and you will not be sleeping. Payback is sweet!!! Be careful and have a blast. Hasta la proxima…… Mom ( Danielle’s!!!)
March 9th, 2006 at 12:50 pmDanielle, AJ, and ya I guess Charlie this one’s for you too…
March 9th, 2006 at 1:56 pmHey guys! Im sitting here in my dorm room reading the past two posts and just cracking up imaging Leli hang gliding and Charlie and AJ, you two thinking you should be pros if a girl could do it and then getting your butt kicked down the sand dunes. Typical, if I may say so myself. Lel, I bet you were doing just as well…hopefully? Anyway, I would probably give two fingers and a big toe to be down there with y’all but im stuck up here in Michigan doing an immense amount of work. And by stuck i actually mean im still having the time of my life and loving every second of it. Notice how I said “y’all” a moment ago? yah thats a new thing for me…I have a ton of friends from texas, georgia, and florida so I’m starting to pick it up. Does it work for me? i cant tell yet…I also picked up “cool beans” but zack said that one is gonna take some time. Well, I’ll wrap it up. Lel and AJ, I give you full permission to kidnap charlie and bring him home with you but if that plan fails give him extra hugs for me. Love you all and, charlie, try to get a tan to prevent getting knocked out again. I think that falls under the category of “reasons why your mom didnt want you to take a world tour.”
-Em
First and foremost, you gotta relax with the “clever” titles to your entries…they were cute at first, but c’mon dude. I mean, it’s bad enough that you’re grossly out-travelling any person I know…do you really have to rub it in?
So here it goes, I’m throwin down the gaunlet:
I hereby challenge you to come up with some randomly hilarious titles for the next 10 days (or 3 showers from now, in the event you’ve stopped using conventional methods of keeping time).
Rule one: absolutely NO puns or any other play on words.
Rule two: no references to pop culture.
Rule three: no help from your travel buddies (I almost let this one slide on account of their superior choice of university…but, this is your challenge…not theirs.)
I understand that I am incapable of enforcing said rules, and that you can easily delete this post and pretend it never happened. BUT, you know just as well as I do that it will haunt your travels through S America…and Rustic Pathways’ guides can’t save you from yourself, holmes.
Alright, brother…all kidding aside. I’m glad things are on the up and up and that you are still on the rock and roll parade. Don’t stop the funk, and keep one eye on the knicker knacker, ya dig?
P.S. If you get stuck for cool stuff in major cities, or find stuff that other travelers should know about: check out www.superfuture.com
March 9th, 2006 at 7:02 pmhi charlie,hows things going with u?
March 9th, 2006 at 8:11 pmi hope you r having fun in florianopolis,while im here working!!how long do u have left in brazil?
i was looking for my photo and i havent seen it yet?????tsc tsc tsc….
safe trips&take care!
JB - the gaunlet has been thrown. you’re on. but i challenge you now: for the next few posts, if you feel my titles don’t meet your “randomly hilarious” standards, you have to come up with a better one. if it is indeed better, ill change it.
March 10th, 2006 at 4:09 pm