Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Southern Coast

The past few days Ive been on the Southern Coast of Brazil in Balneário Camboriu and Florianapolis. I started out in Pouso Alegre where I met my friend Mariana. The night before we left we had a big Mexican themed dinner party (she just returned from Mexico)and the food was delicious. We had to leave at 3am to get the bus to the airport and we arrived in Navegantes. We took another bus to Balneário Camboriu which is a city on the coast. We ate at a really great restaurant on the beach here. Lunch was $7 each ;) There was an awesome view at night of an island near the coast that they lit up at sunset.

Yesterday we went to a little museum about the Tamar Project which is run by an organization that is working on preventing sea turtle from becoming extinct. Today we hung out by the pool in the morning and went to the beach in the afternoon. The place we´re staying, Backpackers Sunset Hostel is by far the most amazing hostel Ive ever stayed in! Its on a cliff overlooking Lagoa Conceição and the views are amazing. This is us at breakfast.

And me on the rocks at the beach ... I was the only person in the ocean without a wetsuit. (But I think the water at the beachs at home is much colder!) The beach we were at is very popular with surfers so there are tons of them even in the winter (now).

We did come across a depressing sight while we were walking on the beach though. We saw four dead penguins and could not figure out what happened. We asked someone at our hostel if it was common and Unfourtunately is it. The penguins swim north from antarctica during the winter months in search of food. On the way a large percentage of them come in contact with oil pollution from large ships transporting international goods. The oil is not concentrated enough in the water to kill them immediatedly but it eats away at the protective coating of their feathers and most eventually die and wash up along the southern beaches of Brazil :(

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