Yet again, the adventures continue.. This time we start in Cassino, a totally unknown place to Google Earth and even to our legendary Lonely Planet! BUT, through couchsurfing we found 3 girls that wanted to host us there. During our three day stay they showed us around town, the longest beach on earth (200-250km) and their university where they all studied Oceanology. We spent an afternoon chilling in their social room, before heading back to Rio Grande to catch a nightbus to Floripa!

Florianopolis (Brazilians call it Floripa) was an amazing place! We started with again 2 days of couchsurfing. The house of our CS-host was one big piece of art. Everything was custumized or covered with a painting or sculpture. We just didn't know where to look! They gave us our own fully equiped room and some time to rest from the all-night busride.

Afterwards we played a little bit with their dogs, but the old rheumatic dog was angry that the young dog always caught the ball and decided to bite me in the leg! Luckily my reaction was fast enough and she only ripped my pants. So while we were getting a tour guided by the daughter, the mother (who is the artist in the house) sewed up my pants and made a piece of art out of it. Now I have customised designer pants!
Our first night in Floripa we went downtown to see our first samba school rehearsal! We did not really know what to expect, but what we saw just beated every expectation! Gorgeous young ladies dancing Samba (which is a crazy fast dance) on the loud drum beats of 50 men called 'La batteria'. Every girl was competing against her neighbour to become the 2010 Carnaval Queen.

The next day, again a sad rainy day, we decided to go to the beach for some fishing with a hook that I bought in Panama City and a nylon that I bought somewhere in a lost village along the Amazon river. Next to us was a local fishing to provide food for his family. He saw that we were desperately trying to catch whatever fish the sea would give us and getting pushed over by big waves, so he decided to give us some advice. The kind man saw that our hook was too big and nylon too short, so we decided to sit on the beach and watch him doing it properly. He really wanted to compete against us, but our weapons were not equal, so he told us he would make that night the same line as he had and we would compete the next day. Unfortunately the next day we did not make it to his house and the ultimate fisher of Floripa will forever stay unknown..

Instead we went to some other beaches at the other side of the Island called Santa Catharina. (Locals call the whole Island Floripa) Here we hung around and waited until the rain would stop, but in vain.. That night our host brought us to our second Samba school rehearsal and again: a perfect mix of the finest Brazilian women and (too) loud music!

The following day we decided to leave our CS hosts and move to the north part of the island to Canasvieira which is a little town packed with loud Argentinians. Beaches are packed with these guys, but they also make the best parties, so for a moment we had our Brazilian Springbreak on an awesome beach with nice surfwaves.

Sadly we had to leave this beautiful island one day, but luckily it was for another, even more beautiful island called Ilha do Mel. Again, after some expensive busrides and a boat trip we made it to this car-free paradise! The only traffic are beachboys with surfboards and local fishermen. We immediately saw this was the perfect spot to sit on the front porch of the hostel with some caipirinha's and watch the sun go down..

In the morning we decided to hike around the island from beach to beach, but the sun was shining from straight above us and burning through the skin of our shoulders, so the hike back was not as pleasant. The next day we heard that São Paulo (Sampa), our next destination, was plagued by rain and floodings! And so it was, the whole night the bus was searching for useable and non flooded roads to get to this giga-pole. With five hours delay we started again our search for the home of our CS hosts. This time it was a student house. The first days in Sampa were not as fun as expected. The rain and long distances between everything made it unpleasant. Little Italy was not as little and Italian as expected. That's why we decided to move to a hostal closer into the travellers center.

On a sunny morning we started our search for one, but sadly it was packed, so we moved to another one and another one before we found another one that had two beds available! All this was due to the brainless Metallic fans that pay more than $150 to come see the show in Sampa and fill up all the hostels for REAL travellers!
All this on the side, we were happy to be in a fun neighbourhood and to cheer ourselves up we decided to go sale-shopping in the fashion capital of Brazil!

Yesterday we went with a group from the hostel to the São Paulo music festival in an old refurbished factory. (a little like Turn & Taxis) Today we went shopping again, but without any luck. So we decided to go visit a dermathologist in the hospital and let him check our diseases out. This was a unique experience.. We had to ask around more than 15 times before we finally found the right building in this huge complex. It was so packed that in case of a pandemic outbreak all 12mln Sampa inhabitants would be infected and die within a couple of hours! For Carlos it was a playground to check out all these people and guess which ugly diseases they have. For me it was more like an opportunity to collect as many diseases as a man can possibly cary. After trying to explain why we were there in our crappy Portuguees to all the nurses, we finally got our consultation and guess why there were so many people.. It is all for free!

The good news is that I don't have skin cancer! It was quite shocking when she told me that. I only had a little wart under my knee! (I already had it from home, but recently Carlos diagnosed this as a wart and not as 'dead skin') And I also have a brown stain on my arm, which was diagnosed as an alcoholic symptom! No it's not true, it's just lime juice that was on my skin when we were making caipirinhas in the sun probably and apparently that burns your skin.. Carlos on his hand wanted confirmation about his white little stains. This is just some fungus (no, don't imagine huge mushrooms on his arms) that will die thanks to some magic cream. Me on the other hand have to live with my wart until July when I come back home.. My loyal travel companion!

Be reassured, nothing will bring these two brave mochilleros down! We're going long and strong! Bit by bit we're getting ready for the carnaval. Our lodging is almost arranged, now we only have to be there in time!
--> Ouro Preto 12/02-18/02.

Vaya con dios gringos! Nos vemos!
C. and G. on the road.