Ilha de Santa Catarina & Praia Canasvieiras.

The 390 mile drive from Peruibe to Florianopolis took us two days, spending the night at a posto in Joinville. Before leaving Peruibe, I had emailed friends that we had met who had motor homes in Brazil, asking for places to stay. Jo & Lis had sent some information about a campsite in Praia Canasvieiras. Camping Costa do Sol turned out to be perfect. It had a river flowing to the ocean on one side and was located right on the beach but with plenty of shade. We were able to park with great views of the river on one side and the ocean on the other. They had water, electricity and sewer hookup but no internet, oh well. It is owned by two gentlemen and Ernesto visited us every day. He introduced us to his grand-daughter and her boyfriend, both of whom speak English and are studying International Relations at a nearby university. We stayed for 6 days, enjoying this beautiful island. Praia Canasvieiras is on the north western side of the island so the water is quite calm with only a little surf. The beach is about a 3 mile stretch of gorgeous white, silky sand. Throughout the days, we took some long walks with Winston. He just loves to race on the beach, jumping in waves and then running back to us for praise. It is so good to see him healthy after some of his recent joint problems. The weather stayed fairly good with only one day of rain – not bad for springtime. On our third day, we took a 5 hour cruise with an outfit called Pirate de Caribe. It was tremendous fun. We visited the Fortaleza de Santa Cruz, a fortress built in the early 1700’s by a brigadier to serve as protection for Florianopolis. Lunch was on another small island, a traditional Brazilian lunch of salad, rice, beans with a selection of fish and chicken. Quite delicious. We watched schools of dolphins, playing around the boat and in our wake and we met Pablo and Cesar. They are on vacation from Buenos Aires and spoke English. They were amazed at our adventures and we exchanged contact information. We will stay in touch and they offered to show us around Buenos Aires. We want to try some Argentinean beef that we have heard so much about and see a tango show. They also told us of some places in Uruguay to visit. Our last two days at the campsite were spent doing laundry and catching up on the never ending maintenance of the motor home. Monday found us on the road again, with the idea we will stay as close to the coast as we can to Porto Alegre and the border.