Saturday, 28, 23:21 hours

Warning: The following descriptions may cause envious thoughts, especially for those living in freezing temperatures.


It received its name because of the soft, thick sand that floods the shoreline. Tucked between mountain peaks and forests, Praia Mole (Soft Beach) was quite the popular spot today. When most of you were still asleep (due to the time difference), Dave and I were up, showered, ate a nice continental breakfast, and were riding a city bus towards downtown. My first impressions of Florianopolis and São Jose (where we’re staying) are very good – it seems like the cities do a good job putting their tourism money back into making the cities look clean, nice, and be safe. The views just from the city buses are just amazing. What an amazing island.


Once we made it to the downtown bus port we walked around a bit getting help from a few nice people. We found the bus we needed, going to “Lagoa da Conceição” (Conceição Lake). It was a full house, and I think the most breathtaking view was coming over the mountain and seeing the huge Conceição Lake, and right behind it was the ocean, with the lush forests, jagged mountains and sand just adding to the color contrast - quite a view. From this stop we got another bus, “Barra da Conceição” that took us right past the lake and we got off on one of the first stops, “Praia Mole.”

Lots of people, but not too uncomfortable. Dave suggested we find some other pasty white people like ourselves so we didn’t feel so out of place, and once we did (sorta) we settled down. Within 5 minutes I couldn’t resist the erge any longer and I went to play in the waves.

As a kid I loved jumping in the waves of Santa Cruz. But now I’ve found a new favorite. Maxing out at about 12 feet max (its hard to judge, but more than twice my size), the waves were perfect. The water as a chilled glass of water – refreshingly cold, but nothing close to unbearable (like Pinky’s… for those who know where I’m talking about). Besides the sun, the only visible dangers were the surfers. Praia Mole is known as a popular beach among the younger crowd, and the waves are perfect for intermediate surfers. Needless to say, when I swam, I tried to stay close to others so the surfers knew exactly where we were… but that didn’t mean they cared. Only once did I dive through a wave and cover my head just incase the surfer continued his line. Luckily he was better than I had thought and ended up nowhere near me.

After a few hours, and pleanty of sun, Dave and I took a quick walk to the rocks that boarder the beach, only to find they didn’t boarder the beach, but were in between 2 beaches. It’s amazing the power water has, and the cool marks and designs it leaves on rocks.

As we walked off the beach I quickly stopped at the surfing school (the same school that has the website on yesterday’s blogg) and got the gist of how the school is run and how much it costs. I plan on returning if we don’t make any other friends who can teach us.

The bus ride home was backed again, but was quicker than the trip to. We got home about 4:30 and rinsed off. I got more sun than I thought.

A few soccer games were on TV in our room, even a live showing of the Milan game. After a few minutes I was asleep and ended up taking a nice nap.

Sometime in the afternoon (I forget if it was before or after the nap) we went to the supermarket and got some water and microwaveable foods. If anyone can send us some good microwave recipes, that would be splendid! Here in the hotel we only have a microwave and a mini fridge.

About 7 Dave and I went out and got a hamburger at a local joint. The hamburgers here are good, but there’s just something about it that takes some getting used to. They’re just not the same. But we brought the food back to the hotel and ate it in the lobby while watching a soccer re-cap show, showing the highlights of today’s games.

Since then we’ve just been relaxing. Dave’s been studying, and I’ve been skyping with Brent and chatting w/ Scott and other friends.

Church starts tomorrow at 9 and I’m tired. So I guess this is goodnight.

p.s. the picture of the beach was one i got online. i didn't take my camera to the beach for fear of it being stolen.