Arrived at Florianopolis airport - one runway and one baggage carousel - you get the idea. Tiny airport for a micro city.

No accommodation booked, so we jumped in a taxi and went straight to one of the better hotels in town. After some discussion with reception we paid for one night with the intention of moving on quickly as it was a little pricey! Luckily our 7th floor room had a great view of the bridges leading to the island and a great view of the build-up to the parade for the Brazilian holiday on the following day (Friday 7 Sep).

That night in Florip was certainly interesting. After seeing the sights of downtown in quick fashion, we headed out for a meal. Found a great piano bar/restaurant where the owner was fantastic. The meals were again huge and the belly ached again! Anyway, it turned out that after ordering another round of chopp (draught beer) we didn't quite have enough cash to cover the bill. Then we found that the place didn't take credit cards... and all the local cashpoints closed at 10pm (even though they say they are open 24 hours!). The owner was very understanding so... I left Jo as downpayment and headed off into the night to find cash! The owner had suggested somewhere to find an open atm, but I decided to pick up some cash we'd left in the hotel...

Little did I know that I would be running a gauntlet of 'ladies of the night' just round the corner from the hotel... thankfully they were good natured and didn't seem to mind me walking past them twice inside 5 minutes!! This, of course, was in addition to seeing them on the way out to the restaurant with Jo and then on the way back to the hotel later that night!

Well, I'm sure you'll be glad to know I got the cash and went back to the restaurant to retrieve Jo who was kinda wondering where I'd got to!

Next day it was off to stay in Praia do Santinho on the north east coast of Isla de Santa Catarina. We found a gem of pousada with fantastic owners and I will tell you more about it next time.