Pro tennis and rain at the beach in Brazil

With the final (and easiest) border crossing by land under our belts, we have made it into Brazil - the final country in our South American odyssey. Our crossing from Puerto Iguazu in Argentina to Foz de Iguaçu in Brazil, just 30 minutes away by car, was uneventful compared with our previous day's journey to the falls and we had made it to the door of our hostel by lunchtime. Unfortunately the weather had really changed overnight and by the time we arrived, the rain was coming down by the bucket load and we were pretty much confined to the hostel for the afternoon. Hostel Bambu was not a bad place to be confined however. On arrival they invited us to join them for a communal lunch which was delicious and the staff couldn't have been more friendly or helpful for the duration of our stay.

The following evening we caught an overnight bus to Florianopolis which is the main city on the island of Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil. As we emerged from the station, bleary eyed from lack of sleep and keen to get to our lovely hostel we were greeted for the first time on our journey with a sign bearing our name. I don't know how many times we've exited a bus station or airport and made our weary way past the tens of signs bearing the names of those lucky people who've arranged transfers to their accommodation and wished that we were one of them! This time we were and it felt great.

Our host drove us the half an hour or so to our guest house (Pousada do Atoba) at the beach of Praia do Santinho and it was lovely to sit back in a car and not have to think about which bus to get etc. We arrived at the lovely guest house which is only a couple of minutes walk to the beach and were offered breakfast and able to check into our room straight away. This place is lovely. The hosts are helpful and friendly, the beach is beautiful and almost deserted and best of all we arrived to find out that there is a pro tennis tournament on all week in the resort down the road. We have spent our first couple of days enjoying the tennis (including a televised match between Gustavo Kuerten, who won the French Open a few years ago, and a Colombian player last night), running on the beach (trying to get back into shape) and generally relaxing. Unfortunately we woke to torrential rain this morning which hasn't relented all day. We've spent today making the most of our laptop by watching DVDs, catching up on what's happening in the world and hoping that the sun shines tomorrow.

After more than four months improving our Spanish to the point where we were more than just getting by, our short time in Brazil so far has already proved to be linguistically challenging. We are assured that Spanish and Portuguese have many similarities but our unaccustomed ears can't pick them out. We had forgotten what it feels like to arrive in a place so ill-equipped that we can't even greet our hosts or thank them in their own language. This final country will certainly prove a challenge but I feel that our short time here may just wet our appetite to return and see it at greater leisure.


We have been particularly moved by two stories in the news recently: the first being the horrific bus crash in Ecuador which killed several young British women and the second being the death of a British woman at Iguazu Falls in Argentina on the very day that we visited. These stories are particularly close to home and our hearts go out to the families and friends effected while we reflect on our wonderful journey and appreciate how fragile life is.