Beaches around Lagoa da Conceicao

LAGOA DA CONCEICAO

I consider Lagoa Da Conceicao as the go to place when you need something during your stay in Barra da Lagoa. It has larger supermarkets, more shopping (in case you didn't purchase your Haviannas before), bars and discos - not to mention it is the town that holds the "Green GO" party which is a party that is offered to a lot of the hostels in the surrounding areas. 

Lagoa Da Conceicao is located near a lake/lagoon which offers calmer water so you can try stand up paddle boarding, paddle boats and other water activities.

PRAIA DA JOAQUINA

Nico and I decided to take a hike to Praia da Joaquina which was about a 30 minute walk from the bottom of the hill in the small town of Lagoa da Conceicao. To get to the bottom of the hill from our hostel, you get on at the same bus stop as you came in on and head towards Mole Praia and Lagoa da Conceicao. Once you get to the bottom of the hill about 30 minutes get off the bus and head towards Joaquina.

Along the way you will pass an area to try sand boarding! It was not a good day for sand boarding when Nico and I went - due to scattered rain showers. But you can rent a sand-board for R$20 for 30 minutes.

First view of Praia da Joaquina

Example of the restaurants where you can cool down with a nice beverage

PRAIA MOLE

Praia Mole  is known as the surfer beach, its a great beach with restaurants and waves! If you would like to go to Mole, let the bus driver know and he will (hopefully) call out when you are there so you can get off and enjoy the views. If you get to the town of Lagoa da Conceicao you have passed Praia Mole.

Backpacker Share House Hostel

BACKPACKER SHARE HOUSE  -

Is set up at such a pretty location in Barra Da Lagoa. Once you arrive at the bus stop you get off the bus and head to the right to a blue footbridge once you walk across the bridge you will take a left and go up the hill about  10 meters. You will see a sign “SHARE HOUSE” above the entrance. Walk in and check in . There are computers to use and 2 different wi-fi names just in case one is acting up.  

There is so many benefits to staying at the hostel. Most importantly the Caipirinha Hour, where you get a free Caipirinha between 7:30PM to 8:30PM. You can rent out any of their water toys such as surfboards, body boards, paddles to play that paddle and ball game I can’t think of the real name and a lot more. They have a weekly activity board to see what things are going on throughout the week such as bike riding, the popular “Green Go” party, or drunken beach games. The board is changed every week.

I loved this hostel because it really encourages everyone in the hostel to hang out with one another. Every night they have group dinners if you are interested and the staff cooks some delicious meals! The first night we stayed there we had a Brazilian dinner with Rice, Black Beans, Salad and Beef. All this was all you can eat for R$18.

The second night was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! They called it a Hawaiian Sweet and Sour Chicken. This meal was beautiful!  They had cut a pineapple in half dug out the insides and filled it with a little bit of rice and then the sweet and sour sauce! It had Chicken, pineapple, broccoli, cauliflower and other veggies! I went back for seconds and a partial third! The total for this meal was R$20, also all you can eat.

FLORIPA - Barra Da Lagoa

Arrived in Floripa a little after 10 AM. The total bus time was 10 hours and 43 minutes. I felt like we stopped a lot during the middle of the night for food breaks or to get out and stretch. Which seemed silly to me because everyone was sleeping.

Once we got to the bus station in Floripa – I followed my hop instructions which led me out the exit doors to my right up diagonally towards the street and stayed on the sidewalk going right for about 5 minutes to get to the bus terminal – You can’t miss it. The tickets were R$2.90 a person. We needed to get to The Back Packer Sharehouse Hostel in Barra Da Lagoa. In order to get to Barra Da Lagoa you will need to take 2 different busses. The first bus you take is towards Lagoa Da Conceicao. This ride takes about 40 minutes and is crowded with people so try your best to get on first with a good spot for your luggage. (The busses around Floripa seem to pass every 15-25 minutes.) You will pass two major stops before you actually get to Lagoa Da Conceicao. The second bus takes about 40 minutes as well, you will get off at the last stop. Once you get off the bus you will turn to your right and see a blue footbridge on the left. A lot of hostels in this area are located across the footbridge.

View from a Rock Evening Setting

WALKING AROUND FLORIPA

After getting settled in to our hostel I decided I wanted to go out and explore this little beach town of Barra Da Lagoa. It is definitely a beach town where your restaurants and bars are located in front of the beach (or behind depends on where your standing) Walking by the restaurants I saw delicious shrimp scampi, fried shrimp, French fries and lots of beer. All looked very appetizing after a long overnight bus travel, especially the brew-ski!

View from a Rock Day Setting

There are plenty of little shops around the area the biggest mini market is located on the street in front of the bus stop. Also on this street at night there is a little stand outside of a small restaurant that makes great crepes on a stick. You can get fruity crepes or salty and savory such as chicken and bacon or ham and cheese. Only downfall for the picante lovers, they do not have pimento!

A hidden hideaway

Quick stop - Sao Paulo

Nico and I took the Paraty Tours transfer from Paraty to Sao Paulo to get to Sao Paulo.

Paraty Tours picked us up a little after 8:30AM there was 9 seats in the back with 8 of us passengers. This driver was very pleasant.

We had a bathroom break 2 hours in. The break was about 35 – 40 minutes long. Back in the van we continued on our way to Sao Paulo. The first stop was the Airport. We arrived at the airport a little after 13:00. The second stop about an hour later was the Blue Tree Tower Paulista, which is located in the center of Sao Paulo. We (I mean Nico) took some pictures of the Blue Tree Tower Paulista and we figured out how to explain where to get on the Metro.

We headed to the Tiete Bus Terminal via metro to store our luggage and to pick up our tickets for the next bus. For my backpack, duffle bag and Nico's HUGE bag the price to hold our luggage was R$15.

The internet café costs R$4.00 for 24 minutes, R$5.00 for 30 minutes, R$6 .00 for 45 minutes. There are free bathrooms in the terminal but there are also bathrooms that costs R$ 1 or 2. 

The Tiete bus terminal is a really nice and user friendly terminal. After we picked up our tickets to Floripa with Catarinense Bus Company we headed to the tourist information kiosk. The tourist information kiosk is a little tricky to find. There are two kiosks that say information and are located in different locations. The first one you will most likely run into is the normal Tiete Terminal information. If you walk past that desk you will come to another escalator going down in the middle of the terminal. Take the escalator down and at one end of the terminals you will run into  the tourist information desk. I must say the two employees working today were great! They could speak English and were more then happy to help with all my questions. How to get around, where is a good place to eat and all of the above, with maps!

We had time to spare before our next bus so we decided to return to the Paulista area. Once we got to Paulista we were starving it was around 5:00 PM so we started looking for the recommended areas that our good friend Claudio mentioned. However we didn’t find them. We did come across an excellent cheap find though! “Balaios; on Rua Luiz Coelho 190. We were able to get A LOT of food for a great price. I got two pieces of chicken breast, beans, rice and fries for R$14. Nico got Picadinho, which is cubes of beef, vegtables some type of sauce, rice and beans for R$13. To top off the meal we got a Big 600 mL Heineken for R$8. The food was great and the service was friendly and quick. Definitely would go there again.

Now, currently we are sitting in the bus terminal waiting for our 11:30PM overnight bus to Florianopolis!

Jeep Tour

Good MORNING day after birthday with a slight hangover but not to bad. 

In front of Geko Hostel and Misti Chill hostel is the beach bar (as I mentioned we were at yesterday) They also hold breakfast here from 8:00AM - 10:00AM. I had a super delicious breakfast with  coffee, juice, bread  rolls, cheese, ham, fruit and a Panini maker!!! I seriously think that’s why the sandwich was as good as it was! Not to mention I ate about 5 sandwiches!

On the Agenda for today Nico and I are going on a Jeep Tour with Paraty Tours.

^^^The Jeeps look a little like this ^^^

The Jeep picked us up around 10:20 AM – in front of our hostel. There was 5 of us all together; 1 Brazilian, 2 Canadians and Nico and I. We first stopped at a botanical garden,  Exhibition of Bromeliads.

There were 3 jeeps including ours on our tour.

^^^And this ^^^

After the botanical garden we got back into the Jeeps and headed to the 2nd stop the  Tobogã waterfall I like to refer to it as Slide rock

Yes I was scared!

At the stop up from the Tobogã waterfall was the Tarzã waterfall located up from the slide rock. Here we cooled down by swimming in the chilly water, but because the day was so hot it was the perfect temperature!

After cooling down in the Tarza waterfall water we walked across the way to our first cachaça, distillery; Engenho D'ouro. Here you can try various different types and ages of cachaca!

After "relaxing with cachaca" we made our way to the lunch stop. We decided to save money and brought our own lunch. If you want to buy a lunch it runs between R$15 for a side dish to R$70. They offer pasta, chicken and other dishes. It looked delicious. 

After lunch we went to another cachaca distillery; 1 shot 2 shots 3 shots MORE!!

Well if I have to

Followed by the second cachaca stop we headed to a waterfall and swimming area. It was a great spot to cool down and have one a little bit more down time next to waterfalls.

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My Birthday Boat Bash in Paraty

GOOD MORNING!!! IT"S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Nico and I made our way into town. We went to Geko Hostel to see if I could stay the night there due to the fact it's my birthday and I didn't want to stumble 5 km to get to a bed! Success I had a bed available for the evening.

Afterwards we made our way to the pier.

We arrived to Paraty Tours boat - The Neptuno II.

We told them our names and they handed us a laminated card with a number for when you buy drinks or food. It goes on your account and you pay at the end. There we tables you could sit at or you can head up the stairs to catch some sun on the reclining chairs. 

• Food was offered on the boat, food prices ranged from R$25 – R$50. Beer – R$4, Capirhinas R$12 Smoothie type adult beverage R$15

• Took 40 minutes to get from the dock to the first island. And 40 minutes to get from the last stop to the dock

• There are bathrooms for male and females, I thought it was cool cause you had to do this pumping thing to flush the toilet

• The trip lasted for the whole day. We stopped at 2 islands and two beaches.

• We left all of our things on the boat while we jumped in the water hoping that everything would be secured - nothing appeared to be tampered with so that was a good feeling.

• The trip in total was about 5 hours.

After the Boat Tour

We drank a few beers at the Geko Hostel Bar and got our got our hunger on to prepare for some DELICIOUS thai food. We went to a German owned Thai restaurant named "Thai Brasil" – SUPER SUPER GOOD

o   Pad Thai – R$38

o   Red Jumbo Shrimp Curry – R$58 – so so so so so good and prepared beautifully.

o   Other dishes were between R$38 – R$58

After dinner we walked back to have moredrinks at the Geko hostel bar – They shut us down early at 1:00 AM which is unheard of in Brazil.

Spent the night in Geko Hostel in a 6 bedroom dorm with air conditioning. The air conditioning was AMAZING

Transfer from Ilha Grande - Paraty

We waited by the Aquario Hostel dock for our boat pick up at 13:00. The Aquario Hostel was the first stop so it allowed Nico and I to have great seats in the middle sector of the boat. A worker from the Hostel was on the boat with us checking us in, verifying that we had a transfer either to Rio or on to Paraty.

Randomly we were sitting next to a Green Toad Bus passenger. It was great being able to talk to him face to face instead of through email. Plus he was a fellow American, must say I sometimes miss my own breed. (haha) We all ended up spending a lot of time together in Paraty.

After everyone was on the boat from the Aqurios dock, the boat headed over to the Abraao dock to make the second pick up. We had been on the boat for about 30 minutes before everyone was on the boat and we set sail. The boat reached Conceicao de Jacarei a little bit before 14:30.

There were 2 vans going to Paraty and 3 or 4 vans heading to Rio.

The van stopped for a quick comfort stop about half way through the journey. We got into Paraty a little after 6.

The first night we stayed at Nico's friends place a little outside of the main town.