After a 15-hour bus ride, we arrive relatively rested in Florianopolis and take an Uber straight to the hostel. Although we are still too early to check in, we pass the time until midday with a delicious breakfast and a little planning for the next few days. Florianopolis was highly recommended to us by Raphael – one of Tobi’s interns who lives here – and the island has a lot to offer! Lots of beaches, surfing, diving, secluded bays with hiking trails, a large lake in the middle for swimming, boating and hiking, and as if that wasn’t enough, an amazingly large dune landscape with a large dune right on the beach as a highlight.

This is also the start of our exploration, as our first hostel (more on this later) is located directly on an endlessly long beach called Praia Joaquina, which leads directly to the dune of the same name. We stroll along it in the current strong wind and sometimes have to be careful not to be blown directly into the water Once we arrive at the dune, the spectacle of wind and sand is of course even more extreme and we stand on the crest of the dune in waist-high sandstorms!!! As we don’t want to walk back, we first want to wait for the bus, but after 15 minutes of waiting we take an Uber. Unfortunately, it takes almost half an hour before we are picked up and we start to realize that it might be a bit difficult to get around here…

In the evening, we go to the “capital” of the island and prepare for a short hike to Lagoinha do Leste. We take an Uber there again as we just miss the bus. The hike takes us for around 3 hours through the jungle to a wonderful viewpoint over the lagoon, which is really worth it. We save the lagoon itself and head to the beach near the starting point of the hike for an hour to cool off! As we had to wait forever for the bus back, we decided on the way back that we would stay another few days and hire a car! We also found the hostel a little too boring and out of the way, so we moved to another hostel right next to a surfing beach. We then rent the car directly for the next four days and only return it in Porto Alegre – our last stop. This way we can use the car to explore the canyons between Florianopolis and Porto Alegre!

Having a car makes everything so much easier! The move to the hostel is done quickly – even if the new hostel is a bit of a shock, it’s already a hive of activity at breakfast time with dozens of U20 surfers… But it’s only two nights We then drive to the north of the island to explore the great beaches there and spend the whole Sunday on the beach, visit the village right by the lake and treat ourselves to an acai with muesli! The next morning is slightly rainy, but we head back to the lake anyway to start our hike along the shore. It rains again and again, but when we arrive at our destination – a small fishing village – it has stopped and we are almost alone! Beautiful! We then take the public boat back to the car. In the evening, we meet up with Raphael and his doctoral supervisor Paolo and are initiated into the secrets of Jambu – Cachaca – spoiler: your tongue goes numb

On the way back we unfortunately have a little mishap with the car, we drive into a puddle and the fender gets a bit battered and then hangs crooked… After a few attempts to fix it ourselves, we give up, but then find a nice mechanic who fixes it the next morning for €7(!!!)! And so we can continue our relaxed drive to the canyons…