Midnight at the oasis

Ok, so it was more like sunset at the oasis, but allow me some artistic license 😉

I arrived in Huacachina, pronounced ‘wackacheena’ in Geordie, only knowing I had a dune buggy / sand boarding trip booked. After a long night bus, my hostel check in was not until 12 and they weren’t serving coffee; what was a gal to do? Dressed in long pants and my campers, the first thing I noticed about this place was the heat as I went on the hunt for coffee. Secondly, I think I was a little sleep deprived as I just could not comprehend what my eyes were seeing!

Huacachina is a tiny little town encased by sand dunes with a lake as its centre; I kept looking up to what I thought was the sky but it was really sand dunes – unbelievable!

Coffee and breakfast sorted, my eyes could now see straight and comprehend the loveliness of Huacachina, first job cancel my next trip. I was only supposed to have a night here, it was not enough… As much as penguins and the like are cute, I wanted to stay in my oasis!

Ok, time for the sand buggy; all aboard!

And so we were off!

I thought the ride in the buggy was awesome, that was until I had a go on the board, head first down the dune I went! Check out the tiny folks at the bottom, yep that was where I was headed…

Oh my lord, I was proper hooked! Oh yeh, the sunset was not bad neither.

The next morning, the sun was shining, there was nothing more to be done than lounge around the pool. Divine. next stop Lima for my last few days in South America!

Vegetarians avert your eyes

After a late start, and a little encouragement, I made it to the beach and what a lovely beach it was (you’ll have to use your powers of deduction as I did not take my camera!) we got a boat ride back which was just so lovely, as we disembarked there was a rainbow 🙂

But to be fair, Florianopolis was all about food for me! Lincoln had already muted having a BBQ, steak and red wine; hey i did not need any persuasion.

Check out the size of these beauties!

This time it was a team effort in the kitchen, well I cut the garlic and mushed the avocado for the guacamole, oh and I also kept the wine glasses topped up!

Did I say there was wine involved?

I think, too date, this had been my favourite stay; not just because there was delicious food and wine on the go, but it was lovely sitting around the big table just chatting, and getting to know some lovely folks ❤

Ps. Lotje has, so I hear, a fantastic hostel in Amsterdam (cocomama), so if you fancy a weekend in the Dam and are looking for lodgings let me know!

A veritable banquet

I am catching my tail a little, so a few tales to tell. The first, my stay in Submarino hostel in Florianopolis, or my pet name for it ‘florrybottomless’! I arrived at the hostel tres late, it did not help that I departed from my bus two hours away from my desired location… Mmm, it was about the scheduled time for arrival and most people were disembarking so I followed the crowd and went to get a taxi. The taxi driver looked a bit startled and checked that was where I really wanted to go… “si, si”. However, it felt a bit odd so I asked the price and knew something was up when he said £100; the hostel guide said it’d be £15. Somehow, between me and a couple of very kind taxis drivers I realised this was not Florianopolis… Somehow, they managed to get me on another bus and two hours later I arrived. Hey, did I need a beer?

Next morning I made it down to breakfast and met Lotje and Lincoln who were discussing dinner that evening. I may have alluded to this, but the food in Brazil is not the best, even I can have too many fried products! So, pushing my luck I asked if I could join them, alas yes, food glorious food (pix soon come)… After a trip to supermercado and getting myself sorted, I headed out to the lake where I was staying next too to pick up a few rays. It was quite lovely and chilled.

But onto the main event, dinner… Lincoln spent a most of the afternoon preparing chicken (knives in hostels aren’t made for be-boning) and then between him and Lotje this fabulous feast was created.

My part of the bargain was the washing up! Actually, Darren did the washing and I wiped.

Aside from the food, I also had red wine, so it was obviously time to meet everyone else in the hostel. It was a late one, I believe we got to bed three ish… Well it was Saturday night, I think 😉

Batman alley

There is no disputing that Sao Paulo has its’ fair share of graffiti, it’s everywhere; even the outside of a cemetery has been tagged…

But, is San Paulo an ‘open air museum’ or is the city brimming with a plethora of street art?

I am no expert on the subject, but I’ve done a bit of research and to be honest not much came up aside from a New York Times article expressing the graffiti as ‘class warfare’ a battle between the haves and have nots…I also found out that it’s called ‘pichacao’ from the Portuguese verb ‘pichar’ – to cover with.

I’m Staying in Vila Madalena, a bohemian suburb of Sao Paulo and the guy who runs the hostel im staying at suggested I visited graffiti alley, or as I since have found out its called ‘batman alley’. What a visual treat, not sure how I’d feel if the back of my flat was covered in it; actually to be honest it might make an improvement.

See what you think…

Hostel heaven

I’ve had a mixed bag with the quality of hostels so far, and I’m sure it’ll continue as I travel forth. However, how lucky was I to find this hidden gem? Think kitsch 50s, graffiti, art installations and jazz… What more could a gal want? This place rocks, just sorry to spend so little time here 😦

it even had Hairdryer; result!

This last pix leads me nicely onto the next post. I’m off to graffiti alley while it’s still light; street art Sao Paulo styleee will be with ya soon x

The only way is up!

Wowsa, everywhere you looked there was fab architecture in Sao Paulo. Maybe not to everyone’s taste, but I played the proper tourist card and my camera stayed in my hand the entire time. Enjoy x

These feet were made for walking

Arrived in the metropolis which is Sao Paulo yesterday tea time. My fellow traveller, another Ozzie Karrine,was my my bus journey pal. We got dropped off at the main bus / metro station and I hung around with here until her Sao Paulo pals she met in Rio arrived. When asking which metro to get to Clinicas station, they kindly drove me to another metro station so I just had to get one metro – there are some very kind people about (and they would even take the cash I offered to get them some beers!!!!)

Metro line safely negotiated I had a 25 minute walk, luckily downhill to Vila Madalena hostel – what a treat (I feel a separate post coming on to tell you about the wonders of this place!) i arrived to find my Nottingham police chap mates, matt and andy in reception, result – dinner sorted, mind it was pizza again and they brought along a Geordie, I say that in the loosest sense of the word ‘sand dancer John’. Pleasant night 🙂

Given I only had one full day in Sao Paulo, I had an ambitious culture vulture trip planned, so off I set at 11am. Did not get too lost, but also did not manage any galleries. Here’s the edited version of my walkathon… Btw: architecture shots too need a separate blog x

I ‘think’ this is the design shop / gallery they choose to change the frontage every 10 month – Mmm all a bit New York, but Gaudi inspired loveliness; I’m not complaining.
The main street where the hostel is music lovers paradise. Honest, there must have been at least 25 shops…

From there, headed down a very swanky designer street. It would have been rude not to visit the Havianas shop, even though I can’t wear them.
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The chap from the hostel also said the Melissa store was well worth a visit; they are those funky plastic shoes that Vivienne Westwood likes. The shop was awesome, I had to stop myself buying some limited edition Liberty printed ones.

The feel in Sao Paulo is just soon cool, I’d say more London than New York and at every step there was something to fuel your senses. Check out these reflective trees.

The financial district was next, pix to follow in the architecture post, and then a wander down to Ibirapuera Park. It was huge and so peaceful. There are lots of museums and the such in there, but I was too concerned with finding a loo and eating a ice cream; did I say the sun was shining today?

My plan was visit MUBE, the museum of Brazilian Sculpture, but I somehow got a wee bit disorientated and missed the turn off. I did find a really cool rabbit though.

Arrived back at 5 ish, not a bad days work! In homage to the British weather, I did treat myself to a t-shirt x

Viva la pizza

Hey, I’m back again. This rain is good for blogging. Eventually indulged in the Italian I’ve been craving for the last few nights. Been another wet day, so was just chilling at hostel poolside reading another book. Got to three ish and i bit the bullet and went wandering in the rain. The plan was to recce the bus station for tomorrows trip and buy some provisions for my six hour ride. Mission accomplished, I got my eye on an Italians. Ordered meat and cheese plate and a Romano pizza slice, oh yes, can’t forget the carafe of vino. Unfortunately there was only one type of vino on carafe menu, but I didn’t care… You know I said i was craving Italians, probably the vino I was missing 😉 meal arrived, avec vino, how civilised did i feel?

Pretty expensive, £15, but so worth it! Had to come back for a snooze, all that wine went to my head; what’s happened to the gal who could comfortably knock back a bottle in a wink of an eye? Last night in Pararty, couple of beers In the bar and an early one, got to be at bus stop tomorrow nine ‘ish. Ciao, ciao xx

Shop, shop, shop, shopping

Paraty is a mecca for shop a’holics. Given how full my ruck sack still is, I’ve resisted the urge, but thought I’d share some of these lovely goodies.

I had hoped to get back to the old town today to get some more shots, but the rain has came tumbling down, and down and down. Got a six hour public bus journey tomorrow to Sao Paulo, at least my itinerary there consists of galleries, so it can rain its heart out x

Through the rectangular window

Wowza, I was in photographers heaven. No words necessary!