So it's now day 6 (1 March) of my time in Floripa (Florionopolis' nick name) and waiting for check out time to leave my hostel.

I am off to meet the lovely Zoe at her Posada near Barra Lagoa which is a half hour bus ride from where my hostel is in Central Lagoa (Hostel Lagoa).

So after all the reservations I've had about staying in hostels ... I don't wanna leave!!!

I've been meeting so many great fun people from all over the world and making so many new friends!

It's not been easy though ... Out drinking Caiprihinas and samba'ing the nites away ... Up early for included breakfast then onto a bus to a new beach every day.

Bronzing myself in my new Brazillian style bikini (I didn't go super tiny but more butt then I've ever shown on a beach before!!!).

I'm also realising that the part I'm enjoying most this time travelling is meeting the people more so then seeing the locations.

I was talking to another girl who has travelled extensively and we were discussing how you get kind of numb to seeing things, as you've either seen it before or sometimes seen something better!

Of course it's still fantastic but the buzz you got from your initial travels is not as strong ...

I'm yet to see Bolivia & Peru which I hope will provide the culture shock buzz that I'm looking for!!!

So back to Floripa ...

Day 1 I arrived in the afternoon after my un eventful 7 hour bus ride from Porto Alegre.

I negotiated the buses I needed to get to my hostel, which was a recommendation by Andre the previous evening in Porto Alegre and turned out to be a fantastic tip off!

Not long after arriving I met the beautiful Virginia who was also in my room. She's an absolutely stunning 25 year old Swiss girl, 185cm tall blond and tanned ... She loves Australian guys and wants to visit and maybe move their one day ... I told her I could probably have her married by the following day, as know our guys will go mental for her!

We hit it off straight away so went out bikini shopping (as you do when you're in Brazil) then for dinner.

We came back to the hostel for our free Caiprahina ... Mmm! Met the very friendly & witty Jeremy from London and ended up staying in as it started pouring with rain when we went to go out.

Went to the beach the next day and then out for drinks with Virginia & Jeremy, and joined by Andres & Bianca who we'd met at the hostel just before heading out the door.

Bianca was also to become a good friend, 23 year old from London, born in Germany and had also lived in Porto Allegre (Brazil). So spoke english / German / Portugese languages fluently as well as others.

I had the next day off from the beach due to the sun burn from the day before, but was ready for the night life and another chance to practice my Aussie samba by the time girls got back from a day exploring the island with a local boy (that we knew as 'Harry'), that Bianca had met as he worked at the bar we'd been to the night before.

And as for my samba ... I still don't think I have it right but good enough to impress the other backpackers and to attract the locals!

We had a few drinks first at the hostel & chatted with the lady who works the bar, Julia.

She was talking to us about her views on dating & hooking up in Brazil. and was saying how in Brazil, it's ok to kiss other boys when you have a boyfriend - 'Sure they don't like it' she says, 'but you never know what they get up to either?'.

She was also telling us how she'll go out & kiss maybe 5 or 6 boys in a night. I know me and the other English guy hearing this swapped suprised glances ... 'It's no big deal!' she says.

I leave wondering if I misunderstood, or if her English was not that good?

Bianca, Virginia & I were enjoying another night out at Confraeria Da Chopp, this time joined by a different English guy from our host, Joe, when a Brazillian came over & said he wanted to introduce us to his friends ...

All were friendly but did not speak a lot of English but we had our translator Bianca at hand.

Ota was particularly friendly & within the first 30 seconds of meeting had his arms around me pulling me into him trying to kiss me!

Wow so my new friend Fiona in Porto Allegre was certainly right, when she had told me that the Braziilians can be very forward! She said she's ended up with a tongue in her mouth before she's even seen the guy it belonged to!

So I tried to push him away but it was all a bit like Peppi la Pew with the cat ... Remember the old cartoon with that skunk, where the girl cat is trying to get away but he just ignores her & keeps trying to kiss her, the whole time saying sweet soothing things in a language she cannot understand?

So I'm trying to explain to him that I'm not used to boys trying to put their tongue in my mouth within the first 30 seconds of meeting, that hey I'm usually used to at least SOME small talk first ...

His response was ... 'But I like you & you like me, so whas the problem?!'

He was cute, unfortunately a bit shorter then me, and hey how could I argue with that logic?!

So yay I finally got my first South American kiss and from a Brazillian no less :-)

So Bianca probably sensing that things might be a bit uncomfortable for me, suggested to us girls that perhaps we may like to go back to the table?

Still feeling extremely awkward, I jumped at the chance, upsetting poor little Ota.

Us girls had a good laugh about it and drank a bit more Caiprihina, improving my samba skills so had another dance to the live band.

The Brazillian boys were back again and when the song finished Ota cut in & grabbed the guitar & mike and performed the next song. His friends joined us for a dance so when the song was finished we all had a drink together and hung out for a bit longer and ...

At the end of the night Ota communicated with my translator Bianca & together they arranged for me to meet him at one of the beaches the next day, and also got my first Brazillians phone number!

I wasnt at all keen due to the language barrier but didn't want to say no there & then, especially when he was telling us all in his limited English ... 'She's my girlfriend! I love her!!!'.

It was all pretty hilarious and reminded me a lot of a book I'd read about an Aussie girl who moved to Rio, and her trials & tribulations with the local men! From what she described they were intense, deep & very emotional - but completely unfaithful and unreliable!

Next day I did not keep my arrangement, but met my new soul sister & fellow oldy, Vered, and in the toilet of all places!

She's 35, Israeli & also travelling solo.

Her and I accompanied Bianca and Harry to the beach.

It ended up being an 8 bus day as we weren't overly impressed when we arrived at the quiet, calm overcast Jurere Beach hours after leaving, but all in all had a very funny day & ended up turning out perfect with a local fish dinner on the beach at Barra Lagoa.

More drinks, dancing & frivolity that evening & met 22 year old German Michael (who turned out to be staying at our hostel). He regalled us with the very funny story of where he'd met a girl the nite before in Porto Alegre, went back to her place but then woke in the morning outside of the apartment naked, and had no idea which apartment number she was in and had to ring them all to work it out!

Her neighbours called the police & eventually they located the right girl & Michael was able to retrieve his stuff on time to get back to the hostel then to the bus station to find his way to Florionopolis.

My Caiprihina confidence was flowing so also danced with Columbian Diego, who was trying to teach me some moves on the floor but unfortunately always seem to end up with 2 left feet when a partner is involved! (I didn't realise til next day Diego was also staying at our hostel). And also had a dance with one of the 2 irish boys we met - cant remember if it was Sean or Finn? Probably both!

Headed off to Joaquina Beach the next day with Michael, Vered & an Aussie couple from Albury Wodonga. Beautiful beach with rocks to climb & sand dunes behind that you can snowboard down.

Met a funny bored Spanish guy on the beach who was looking for a wife! Said he was sick of the girls and wanted to talk to some ladies (Vered and I loved this!). But think he also soon grew bored of us and moved on ...

Quieter evening after Vered & I were bored to sleep by the Jazz at the Black Swan.

Found Diego there and as not much was happening around town on a Monday nite, we grabbed some take away knock off Smirnoff Ices and sat on a bench beside the lake ... (although nearly sat at the bus stop to drink our booze which apparently is also common for kids to do in Israel & Columbia).

Next day was where I began the blog, packing up my things and moving to Zoe's Pousada near Barra Lagoa.

We ended up being the only ones staying there and was very comfy surroundings after staying at the hostel!

It was great to see Zoe! Someone I know I travel well with after meeting on our Contiki trip in the US in 2009, and who I know I will have a fab time with.

We headed straight to the beach after she arrived to see if we could get some colour into that English rose skin of hers! (Manchester gal & 2 days before was in the English rain & cold so Brazillian beach full of bronzed barely covered men & women and was a bit of a shock to the system for her!)

Ran into Virginia straight away who had moved to nearby backpackers share house hostel and was loving it!

Sat with her for a bit then after she left ran into Vered ... Seriously there's over 100 beaches in Florionopolis but this is an easy one to access from our hostel so everybody's there!

Arranged to meet Vered for dinner near old hostel.

Zoe enjoyed the crazy bus drive into Lagoa Concenciao (they always drive foot to floor and speed up for bends!) and sitting round the hostel at a table where in 10 minutes about 5 languages were spoken, 3 by Vered alone and none being her first language, and where we're meeting with people from Slovakia, Switzerland, Chile, Peru, Ireland, and of course Brazil, England, Israel and Australia!

Just about the whole hostel & staff ended up at Confraria De Chopp that night where it was Samba night!

Of all nights I seemed to finally be Samba'd out & the Caipirinhas werent helping!

A local saw me samba'ing alone and tried to dance with me but I just couldn't seem to get it and he could only talk to me in Portugese so his advice was not helping!!! It's always nice to interact with the locals though & had lots of laughs anyway ...

When I left, said a sad goodbye to all from hostel & swapped facebook details knowing I would not likely see them again soon.

Shared a cab back to Barra Lagoa with a yobbo Aussie we met who was staying near us - could tell he was an Aussie as he asked our bar lady Julia to dance but held onto her in one arm & his beer in the other the whole time! He then slapped another girl on the ass as he passed, then later got slapped and abused by her which was hilarious!

He paid for most of the cab fare though so shouldnt bag him too muh! But think that was probably cause he thought we were getting out with him - instead we stayed in, waved goodbye & continued home :-)

The next day it rained on our walk to Praia Mole. We stopped at a very cool bar for lunch and watched the weather clear, then lazed on the beach for the remainder of the afternoon.

Tried to follow the coast to return to our Pousada and that took us through the gay area of Mole and the nudist beach Galhetta.

With only rocks around the point, no clear hiking trails, the sun setting and the dunes filled with condom wrappers, we decided it may not be the beat idea to try to continue the hike and to head back the way we came.

It was almost completely dark when we had to cross from the beach to the road and found ourselves alone with a dodgy character who seemed to be teasing us ... Following us then getting ahead and sitting on a bench waiting for us to pass then following us again ...

Third day in South America, Zoe was having kittens about this ... But fortunately was a crowd of rowdy young guys ahead of us so sped up to walk amongst them ... Assuming that he wouldn't try anything with then there ... But also then wondering if they were drunk and going to start hassling us too!

After 10 nervous minutes we made it to the road and safety, drew a bug sigh of relief and walked back to our Pousada in Barra.

That evening we ate locally - a huge seafood feat and Caiprihina for about $25 equivalent.

The following day we walked to Joaquina Beach.

Hired ourselves chairs and an umbrella and lazed away the arvo.

We walked back to near the lagoon to catch a bus, but stopped at a bar for a Caiprahina instead and to watch the sunset.

Whilst enjoying our second Caiprihina we were joined by Brazillian, 38 year old Demetrio, who was there on holiday from the Belo Horizonte region.

His English was fairly good so had another new friend to drink too many caiprahinas with, have dinner and dance our last night in Floripa away ... not a lot of sleep was had, so so much for a quiet one before carnival!

Our last day in Floripa we went to a small bay just away from the main Barra beach, then took a long taxi ride through the carnival traffic to the airport and to our plane bound for Rio!