On this Halloween night I am definitely missing pumpkins, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin candles, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie...:) and the overall smell of Fall.
But back in Brazil, it has been a beautiful "Spring" too. There has been tons of rain in São Paulo state, Paraná and throughout all of the South of Brazil, but I seem to have missed a lot of that because I've been traveling so much. I feel like I've been living in an airplane these past two weeks of October! But somehow the hassle of flying and going to and from airports is usuallly compensated for by the trips themselves. In these cases it certainly was.
In mid-Octber I went to the TESOL conference in Santiago. Unfortunately, it was only for 4 days, but still it was great to be back in Chile. Santiago is such a nice city! Surrounded by mountains with about 7 million people and lots of good cafes & restaurants, it feels like it would be a great place to live. Although, Chilean Spanish seems to be faster than the Spanish from other countries. Even people from Paraguay and Argentina had trouble understanding it at times:) But I love that people want to communicate. On my way to and from the airport the taxi drivers would speak to me a mile a minute, either in Spanish or Portuñol (a mix of Portuguese and Spanish:)). The one that spoke only in Spanish, I maybe understand about 30% of the actual words he used, but 70% of the ideas. So it was enough to chime in once in a while in broken Spanish with, "si, certo" or "concordo" which he seemed to take to mean that I was following the conversation:)
And when I told the driver that I loved Santiago and wanted to come back he said "gracias", which I thought was interesting because he took the idea that Santiago was his city very seriously. I said that I thought it was quite clean and organized and he again said "gracias", that people there are proud of where they live and want to keep it nice. I couldn't help but think how great it would be if people in all cities felt like this too!
The TESOL conference's theme was Critical Teaching for Critical Times and was at the same university I visited last year, Universidad Alberto Hurtado. It was a really good conference, I thought, with a lot of interesting speakers, and what made it better was the presence of so many students. They were able to pay a cheaper price and attend the talks as well. This is not always the case at all conferences, but I think it should be. The students' presence added a lot to the discussions and the atmosphere, and it meant that we had about 800participants each of the three days.
I didn't have much time for sight-seeing this time and I had come down with a bad cold and really wasn't feeling well during my stay there, unfortunately. But I did manage to buy a couple of new blouses, and some jewelry, even so:) There was also a great little artisan fair at a church near the foot of the mountains that was just beautiful - Los Dominicos. I only had a very short time to walk around since it was just before my flight, but I stayed until the last possible minute, it was so charming there:)
The closest I got to Easter Island:)
Working hard at TESOL registration;)
With Salem, Mary Jane, Tania (Paraguay)& TESOL president from Argentina
At La Moneda, government palace
At Los Dominicos Art fair
One other good thing was that after craving donuts all year in São Paulo, to my delight, I found a Dunkin' Donuts down the street from my hotel. Never would I have imagined I would be excited about a Dunkin' donuts, since it is no where as good as Top Pot in Seattle, but still it tasted wonderful after not having had any for such a long time! I did feel like the only people in the place were other Americans, though, because I kept hearing strong accents: "Yo quiero dos donuts, por favor" Cracked me up:)
I got back from Santiago Sunday night and was supposed to go to Florianopolis early the next day. But I was still feeling very much under the weather and the thought of running back to the airport did not sound fun. I thought, no problem, I'll just call and change my flight. Well, it wasn't quite that easy since apparently the airlines is yet another place where it is nearly impossible to do anything as a foreigner, or at least a foreigner without a Brazilian credit card! I was finally able to change my flight, but only after going in person to a TAM (Brazilian airline) store and paying there. Feeling tired and sick, spending my one rest day in Sao Paulo running to the shopping mall to do this was the last thing I wanted to do, but at least it worked and I was able to leave the following day instead.
So, Tuesday morning I flew to Florianopolis. It's only a one hour flight, but as you approach Florianopolis it's just gorgeous - almost as nice as the view of the Andes mountains over Santiago! Since the city is an island connected to the coast by bridge you could see the ocean and some of the 42 beaches that make up the island as we landed on a beautiful sunny day. The beaches here are stunning; it's just one beautiful place after another!! I took a cab to my hotel, Centro Sul, which was simple but very nice and well located right downtown near the market and the bus station with transport to all areas of the island.
Floripa from the air
On my first day I decided to go to the Lagoa da Conceição and take a boat ride to the other side of the lake. It was easy to get there by bus but then I assumed I would take the boat to the final destination on the other side and have lunch and then come back. However, what the guide books don't tell you is that at the final stop there is nothing. You really want to get off a few stops before that where the school and all the restaurants are. Then you can sit and eat something there, as well as hike to the nearby waterfall.
A German girl I met on the boat also got off at the same spot as me and we took a walk and had a nice lunch together at the pier. Then we took the boat back and decided to walk to Praia Joaquina, one of the closer beaches to the Lagoa. It was about an hour walk along the lake, but since no buses passed, we didn't have much choice but to keep going. Joaquina was gorgeous! It is a sufer beach with strong waves and miles of sand to walk on as far you want. I bought a coconut ring from one of the kiosks there and then we took the bus back to the Lagoa and I made my way back to the Centro and my hotel. I ate at the famous Box 32 in the market and walked around a bit and then crashed.
Lagoa da Conceição and boat trip
Walking around the Lagoa
Praia Joaquina
Box 32 in the central market
The following day, Wednesday, I went to the beaches of the north. I took a direct bus to Canasveiras (one of the benefits of being near the central bus station) and then from there found a taxi driver to take me to Praia dos Ingleses, Praia Brava and then all the way back to Jurere Intl, visiting the beaches in between as well. From there I walked to Praia da forte and passed the old lace making stations, as well as the fort itself, which had beautiful views and was an interesting old building that had a small museum inside. Here are just a couple photos.
Praia Brava
Praia do Jurere International
On Thursday the weather was a little cloudy and I had to change hotels to be closer to the university for the conference. In the morning I visited the downtown a bit & the palace, and then had my nails done and moved to my hotel in Trindade, Hotel Slaveiro. The rest of the day was pretty laid out, just working on my presentation in the hotel.
Government Palace
Central Market
Church downtown
Friday the APLISC Congresso started, conference for Professors of English in Santa Cantarina. Telma had arrived from Londrina the night before, since she was presenting too. We spent the morning at the conference and then had lunch with some of the other presenters. After lunch Telma and I went to Saint Antonio da Lisboa, a quaint town on the calm side of the island that has typical Portuguese architecture and good seafood restaurants, as well as a view of Florianopolis. Telma found a beautiful rug there and we had some drinks by the water before going back to the hotel to work on our presentations for the following day.
Sainto Antonio da Lisboa
Saturday, we had the conference during the day and my presentation on Critical Literacy & Global English was in the afternoon. Many people were presenting on the idea of English as a Lingua Franca at this conference, which was fun because it provokes many interesting discussions and exchange of ideas. Many participants had to leave on Saturday, but since I was staying longer, after the conference finished, I had coffee with Renata, a student from Londrina who is now living and teaching in Florianopolis, and we walked around the Trindade neighborhood a bit as well.
On Sunday I checked out of the hotel and took a cab to Lagoa da Conceição to look for another hotel. This area seemed to have the most restaurants and bars on the island, and also is centrally located which was nice, so I thought I could stay there for my last few days. However, since the majority of lodging there were pousadas (bed and breakfasts), it was so frustrating because it wasn't high season and most of them were closed on Sunday afternoon. I had to walk FOREVER with all of my luggage until I could find a place. After one hour and a very sore back, I finally decided just to stop at the hostel in town. I didn't think I would ever stay in a hostel again after all my travels through Europe, but the price was cheap and it seemed like the best option since I was exhausted and it was open!:) In the end it was great because there were very few people there and I had a whole room to myself for only $15 or so.
I called Renata, who lived nearby, and she met me at the cafe on the corner downtown Lagoa. We had coffee and then saw that the weather was really turning nice (it had been cloudy all day) so we took the bus to Praia Mole (the closest beach to the Lagoa) and walked around there for a while. It was nearly deserted but absolutely gorgeous at dusk. Right across the road there was also a mirante with a view of the whole Laoga area. Beautiful again but it was getting dark so I returned the following day to take more pictures from this spot.
Praia Mole with Renata
...and then we went sky diving...okay maybe not:)
The next day, Monday, I had the good luck to meet up with Erico, a friend of Debora's from São Paulo. Erico had lived in the area for nearly 30 years and was a great example of the typical German descendent living in Southern Brazil. He was so kind and took me and Andreia, a presenter from Argentina all around the island. But he was also much more stoic and more interested in photography than staying on the beach. No problem, but he just reminded me more of my Scandanavian relatives (you know who you are:)) than a Brazilian:)
Anyway, we went back to the mirante of the Lagoa to take a few pictures and then toured Barra da Lagoa and then picked up Andreia in Campeche and visited the gorgeous beach there. From there we drove to the beaches of the South: Morro das Pedras, Praia da Armação, Praia Matedeira and Pantano do Sul. Then we drove to the other side of the island (the calmer side) and went to Riberão da ilha, which was another gorgeous example of Portuguese architecture and cooking - similar to Santo Antonio da Lisboa. It was a charming town. From there we drove back into the center of town to go to Morro da Cruz for a view overlooking the area. It was pretty, but very bright at the time we were there so it was difficult to take any pictures. After that super full day of touring, I was beat and just stayed in the hostel for the evening.
Lagoa Mirante
Barra da Lagoa
Praia Moçambique from Barra da Lagoa
Praia da Campeche
Praia Morro das Pedras from the Convent- lindo!!!
Praia da Armação
Praia da Matedeira
Pantano do Sul
Riberão da Ilha
Morro da Cruz
Tuesday, my last day in Floripa! I took the bus to Canasveiras and then another one to Praia do Santinho. It passes Praia dos Ingleses and then continues on to the final stop of Santinho. At first it was cold and windy, but I walked along the beach anyway and it was still great, just more like Oregon or northern California. But then I had lunch at a great bar right on the beach and it started to warm up a little bit. I walked to the end of the beach and saw the famous resort, Costão do Santinho and the gorgeous coastal walk that goes above the beach with spectacular views. Gorgeous!!
Costão do Santinho
Unfortunatley, I had to go back in the afternoon in order to be able to get to the airport on time. Such a bummer to have to leave this great city. Definitely want to come back soon!
Amei Floripa!!!
