This weekend I went on an adventure with my friend Carolina, her boyfriend Andres (both colombians), Mark (the other American exchange student), and Javier (a visiting Spanish doctoral student).
It made for an interesting weekend due to a lack of a common language between all five of us, we had to keep shifting back and forth between spanish, portuguese, and english for everybody to understand what was going on.
But anyway, Andres drove us out to Pontal do Sul (where I've had several plant geography classes by this point) and we caught a boat to Ilha do Mel (Island of Honey). Right now is the off season so it was really low key and the prices were about a third of what they are during the holidays. It was 35 reais (~15 bucks) per night in a pousada (local lodging) with cool hammocks hanging around.
Once we picked a place to stay we got some lunch at a restaurante (with food bom bom bom according to the lady at our hotel (bom=good)) and then headed to the beach to relax and take a swim. The coolest thing about Ilha do Mel is that is still is very natural and there are only sandy footpaths to get around. Half of the island is a natural presearve. After a snooze on the beach we went for a hike up to the "farol" (lighthouse) to get a scenic view. After dinner we played cards and tried to drink some really horrid brazillian wine until we were informed that there was a "farro" (typical live beach music/dancing) at one of the bar/restaurants and headed over there for a caipirinha and some local entertainment. 
The next day we wisened up and took chairs to the very hard beach.
Andres rented a surf board while Javier gave him lessons and Carolina and I got engulfed in waves trying to take a few pictures. yay waterproof camera! Overall a very successful weekend trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment