My days in Floripa looked much the same. Each morning a girl I met from my hostel, and a guy she met from another hostel would get an iced coffee before spending a long, hard day on the beach. There are a lot of beaches in Floripa that you need to hike to get to. I hear they are beautiful and not very busy. I love a good walk but hiking in 30° heat with bugs and shit is not my idea of fun. If that’s your vibe, Praia do Matadeiro and Lagoinha do Leste come highly recommended.

I stuck to Praia da Barra da Lagoa, (you can walk along the beach to Moçambique Beach), Joaquina and Mole, (you can walk to Galheta from here but beware of the swinging dicks – it’s a nude beach).

In the evenings, The Search House, (some say this is the best hostel in Brazil so it’s always booked up!), has a great social calendar which non-guests can join in on. During the time I was there, there was a surf competition and an accompanying film festival. The night I went the night ended with a band doing covers, (and singing the N-word with chest when they did the hiphop songs which was uncomfortable), and a DJ. There are some fun clubs around Lagoa da Conceição too like Esperanto, Céu and Santa.

I had to tear myself away from Barra da Lagoa as I was getting ready to stay forever. I spent a night in Floripa city before heading to Campeche. If I were using 100% of my brain when I planned this, I would have just left after my night in the city to my next desto from the bus station… that is in the city. Anyways, I thought Campeche would be another beachside town like Barra da Lagoa but it’s not. It’s honestly, very dry and the hostel I was staying in was even drier. It felt like a waste of a few days to be honest but I did have a surfing lesson which was SO much fun! My instructor, Gabriel, was incredible and I managed to stand up and ‘ride the waves’ a couple times which I was proper chuffed with. I booked 1hr30 for R$150/£20 through Sea Wolf Hostel – they give surfing lessons in both Campeche and Barra da Lagoa but with Floripa being a surfing hub, there are loads of surf schools, you probs can’t go wrong.

Considering this was the place I was ready to skip, I ended up staying for a whole week. I can honestly say that Floripa is one of my favourite places that I’ve visited so far. If I could get a job there I would actually move quiicccckkk sharp.

The original plan was to do Floripa, Iguazu Falls and then fly up north. When it came to it, I realised I was just going to Iguazu falls to say that I’d been to Iguazu Falls, yknow? I wasn’t particularly excited about it and it’s so far out of the way I ultimately decided to skip it and come straight up north to the place that I was actually mad excited to visit!