Before I fell asleep on the night bus, I prayed, and one of my affirmations was, ‘I am open to new fun experiences and meeting good, kind people’…

Ilha Santa Catarina is connected to mainland Brazil by a big boy bridge that brings you into its main city of Florianópolis, or Floripa for short. I dropped off my stuff at Nômades Hostel in Barra da Lagoa and wandered to the beach to get some breakfast. There was a guy there, surfer looking dude, who said something to me in Portuguese. I returned with the classic, (and increasingly embarrassing), ‘disculpe, eu não falo Portuguese’. Turns out he spoke English and we got chatting. He said, ‘I’m going to the natural pools over there, it’s about a 15 mins walk, do you wanna come?’. I quickly googled the natural pools, they existed, were in the direction that he’d pointed and about 15 mins away. Everything checked out so I said yes to this random man. What followed was easily a highlight day of the trip so far.

We chilled by the natural pools, had a dip, had lunch together and met up with some of his friends so I could practice my Portuguese. We talked about all sorts: religion, racism, Brazil, Europe, dumb shit too. There was no weirdness, no funny business, not a single moment where I was like ‘:/’, just a kind man who figured he’d show the new girl around the place that he loves and practice his English. I think this man has single handedly restored my faith in the Y chromosome.

Anyways, I absolutely love Floripa but we’ll get to that tomorrow…