Floripa Round 2

After all the excitement of the Volta, we were able to take two nights and relax on the island. On our first trip we stayed at Praia Brava at the very north end of the island and hung out at Praia Mole on the east of the island as well.

This time we thought we would try out a new area and chose the northwest. We originally wanted to stay at Jurerê, but were drawn to Canasvieiras due to the cheaper prices. Not a smart decision. We took a suggestion from an acquaintance here and the hotel room turned out to be more like a hostel.

I'm okay with a simple room as long as it is clean, but we really weren't in the mood for this kind of trip. We wanted to relax in a comfortable room and we weren't that impressed with the beach there so we left.

We headed to Jurerê as we had originally planned and got a room at the Jurerê Beach Village. This place is great. It has a resort feel, and although the rooms are very basic as are all hotel rooms we've come across in Brazil, the atmosphere more than made up for it.

There were two pools, one heated, and a deck which walked right out on the beach. The beach was very nice, but we were surprised to find that with the tide it nearly disappeared around 3:00 pm. It was long and relatively wide during other parts of the day, though. We went for a jog one morning and my husband estimated that it was probably about 6K long.

We are always surprised to hear our friends here tell us that right now isn't a good time to go to Floripa because it is too cold. It seems people from Curitiba are only interested in going December through February.

The weather was perfect for us. It was hot in the sun and comfortable in the shade. The nights were cool and breezy. The lack of crowds and the price we got on the room for the low season was even better. There was practically no one at the resort at all, just a handful of couples and a few kids.

You do sacrifice a few things by going this time of year and enjoying the quiet though. The biggest of these is a lack of restaurants. Many places close for the season or are only open on the weekends. We didn't have a shortage of food though. We found a local seafood place, called Toca, open and had some great moqueca with shrimp and calamari.

The rest of the time we ate at the hotel which was really delicious and quite reasonably priced. We are so used hotel food prices being hiked up, but drinks and meals were about the same as what we pay in Curitiba. At the hotel we had an amazing lunch of bake oysters and casquinha de siri (stuffed crab).

We tried the Festival of Shrimp as well. It was a little different the the sequência de camarão that is so popular on the island. Steamed shrimp, fried shrimp, fish in shrimp sauce, bolinhos de siri, potatoes and rice were all served in one clay pot. It was excellent and the dessert of maracujá sorbet and a brownie was so unique, one of the best desserts we've had in Brazil.

The service was outstanding. One night we had a waiter who started speaking English to us. He spoke very well and we asked him if he had been to the US since most people who speak at his level and with a US American accent have been at some point. He told us no and that he had not even studied. He simply taught himself from working with tourists. That is so amazing to me.

There were umbrellas and chairs for use among guests of the resort. We were also able to get drink service on the beach, which is something we aren't at all used to so I took advantage by ordering a caprioska (caipirinha with vodka instead of cachaça) with mango.

Our two days there were exactly what we were looking for – quiet time on the beach with a lot of fresh seafood.