The last few days have been interesting

Warning: spell check isnt working. You thought my spelling was bad b4? I´m sure you´ll be shocked now. Also the PC doesnt like it when i use ´ .

Up until last night I hadnt spoken english in over 48hours. This in its self is pretty tuff. I made a few intersting decisions too that once upon a time would have spun me out but I spose thats all part of the game.

I decided to stay in Paranagua Monday morning thinking that I could catch a 1pm ferry out to Ilha do Mel, which is a island 2 hours by boat form Paranagua. I thought I was so close I might as well go to a island. Problem number 1 was that I was told the wrong time for the ferry. The guy at the hotel assured me that the ferry left at 1pm (on the weekends maybe...) at 3pm when the engin started up I was like, ok must be local time... No big deal... Should have read my guide book a little better, had the correct times in there :) When I arrived as per usual there was a tout offering accomidation. I went & had a look & it was a nice enough room with a double bed, tv (with english movies!) etc but it was in more of a hotel so I opted for the hostle thinking Id meed some people... Wrong choice! Only 2 other people were staying at the hostle & I didnt even see them... The guide book also mentioned that out of season not much is happening on the island. By that I thought there would be a few travellers etc um, nope. I think I was the only person on the whole island that spoke english. The island was really pretty & I watched a beautiful sunset, however, been the only non local there I decided not to stick around. I got there at 5pm Monday night & left 9am Tuesday morning.

Tuesday 8/06 - I caught a ferry over to Portal do Sul then was going to catch a bus to Paranagua but couldnt find the bus stop so asked some people that were on the ferry where it was & it turned out they were going to Paranagua too & offered me a lift. I took it. Then when we got there the lady got out & the man said he was going to Curtiba, where I needed to catch my bus to Florinopolis from. I thought I might as well take the free lift. I can say though I was a little happier when we stopped to pick up his mother in-law. So instead of costing me R$15 or R$20 to get to Curtiba I spent nothing :) I tried to give him R$10 but he wouldn´t take it. Intresting really, we couldnt really talk cause he didnt understand spanish (or english) so I said like maybe 5 words to them but he was still happy to give me a lift. It saved me about 2hours travel time too.

I got to Curriba about 12.15pm & started the task of going to the differnt bus companies booths to try & find the next bus that was leaving for Florinopolis. In my guide book it said that it would take 4.5hours to get here... um.... WRONG. My bus left at 1.15pm (the ticket cost R$27) & didnt get here till 6.30pm. Im not a big fan of arriving anywhere in the dark. As always though things have a way of working out & there was a tout to meet me at the bus station. Things are pretty dead here this time of year too & there is only one hostle on the island in the city, not the beach. So I ended up taking the touts offer & staying at the beach in a apartment. Someone came & picked me up form the station & it was all very easy. It only cost R$25 so its not to bad plus it has TV, double bed & a kitchen. Its not flash by any means but its clean so its all good. Last night there were 2 german guys in the same complex so I got my fix of english conversation & we proceeded to get very drunk.

Today 9/06 - Well, for the fist time in ages I woke up with a bit of a hang over. I know I really should have gotten up & done the whole sight seeing thing but honestly, I couldnt be bothered :) I had NO clean clothes (had to wear my bikin & shorts today) so first thing I found a laundry then went for a walk on the beach. Had some lunch back at the apartment then grabbed a book and spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the beach reading & wathing kite surfers. Its really nice just been able to chil out. It so much harder travelling by yourself, quite tiring really. I really enjoyed today & I´m now looking forward to a early night.

The plan for the next few days... Tomorrow I´m going to try to catch a bus to Montevideo in Uruguay, supposedly its going to cost me R$179 - thats like the most I would have spent on any kind of transportation since Ive been here. Its a 20hour trip & they give you food & the bus doesnt stop & start so I suppose itll be worth it. Depending on if I like it in Montevideo I might stay there a few day or just go to a little town called Colonia. From Colonia I can actually catch a ferry over to Buenos Aries. So thats the plan, I´m hoping to get to Buenos Aries by then 14th so I can catch up with a friend I met in Cusco. Plus I can´t wait to see Mora, I´m actually really excited.

Ok, better go...

Keep in touch guys. xoxoxox

Ilha Santa Catilina (island) Florinopolis - Brazil, Wednesday 9th June 2004, 9.10pm