 |
| Praia da Lagoinha do Leste |
After 11 hours of travel,
including a boat ride, a taxi and 5 buses we made it back to Floripa to scenes
of celebration and debauchery – in a good way. Brazil had just got past Chile
in the penalty shootout and there wasn’t a sober person to be found at the hostel,
Barra Beach Club.
This became somewhat of a theme
for our second stay in Floripa. Game day routine usually meant waking up just
in time to enjoy the hostels breakfast, a swim at the beach in an attempt to
cure the hangover/sober up, a friendly game of beach soccer and then back up to
the hostel bar to start the shenanigans all over again.
We ended up staying at Barra
Beach Club for 8 nights and on about day 7 one of the hostel newcomers asked us
what was good to do around the place. We all looked at each other and really
couldn’t answer him with much more than, ‘enjoy the beach, the games and the
beverages’. We did manage to achieve some things on non-game days, with a trip
down to the south of the island to check out Pântano do
Sul the main adventure.
 |
| Pântano do Sul |
From here we hiked through to Praia
da Lagoinha do Leste, considered by some as the ‘Jewel of the Island’. Although
it was spectacular, I wouldn’t go that far. Still it was great to actually do
something other than feeling sorry for yourself and lazing around all day – not
that those things aren’t great to do, just in moderation.
 |
| Praia da Lagoinha do Leste |
 |
| Ledge Ledge |
Highlights have to include
meeting some likewise-minded lads from Queensland, a rapping performance to
last the ages, getting introduced to Natasha (cheap, very cheap Vodka),
witnessing the aftermath of Warung Beach Club (rated as one of the world’s best
clubs), meeting some of the local dogs (Lola – an age weary veteran who has developed
a crablike walk, Frango – an aptly named small fella [frango is Portuguese for
chicken] who doesn’t like people celebrating too loudly, and Ledge Ledge – who thought
she/he was more cat than dog and took to spending his days atop a ledge outside
the hostel) and finally getting some decent waves, but meeting Luis Suárez
incarnated takes the cake.
After the Brazil v Columbia Quarter
Final, fair to say there were a number of inebriated folks getting about the hostel.
One chap seemed to be down on his luck and was sitting at the top of the stairs
leading to the bar. He wasn’t in much of a state to continue in the festivities
so Toddy (one of the Queensland lads) took it upon himself to try and encourage
Old Mate to head to bed. I left the two together to let Toddy work his magic
only to have a somewhat bewildered and bemused Toddy come back inside minutes
later saying Luis Suárez was back in town.
 |
| Warung aftermath |
Story goes Old Mate didn’t take
too kindly to Toddy’s suggestions and decided the best course of action was to bite
him. This wasn’t the smartest of moves given Toddy was wearing a jumper so he
didn’t get much purchase on any flesh (he still managed to leave impressive
enough teeth marks), and he was sitting atop some rather steep stairs.
Toddy’s reaction was to simply
shove the biter off him, and perhaps direct that shove down the stairs.
Apparently Old Mate took quite the tumble, but was able to be walked back to
his room and get a few spews out of the way along the journey. He was quickly
and quietly gone the next morning (whether he cut his stay short or not, we don’t
know) so we really never got a good look at the infamous biter, which leads me
to believe that it may have in fact being Luis Suárez himself!
After finally managing to tear
ourselves away from Floripa we booked an overnight bus ride to Foz do Iguaçu.
But Floripa wasn’t quite done with us yet. Leaving the hostel a little over 2
hours before our scheduled bus ride should have given us more than enough
breathing room for any mishaps along the way, and given it was a lazy Sunday
afternoon we didn’t expect too much traffic. How we were wrong.
The standard journey to get out
of Barra takes 20 minutes, ours took an hour and 40 minutes, leaving about 25
minutes to get to the station – a trip that usually take 35 – 40 minutes on the
local bus. Enter the Michael Schumacher of Brazilian taxi drivers – but to be
fair, I have a sneaking suspicion that all South American taxi drivers have a
little Schumacher in them. Our man managed to break every road law I know, including
a breezy 140km/hr in an 80km/hr zone, hitting speed bumps like they were launch
pads, and get us there with 10 minutes to spare – you’re welcome!
No comments:
Post a Comment