Os gringos vão para Rio de Janeiro?! Not quite, just a weekend in Balneário Camboriú

Portuguese Words of the Day
- camundongo = mouse
- rato = rat
- regra = rule
- tecla =  key (on a  keyboard)
- sinaleiro = traffic light
- fecho = zipper

This past weekend, a group of twelve of us went to Balneário Camboriú, the touristic city of Santa Catarina. They call Balneário Camboriú a poor man's Rio de Janeiro. There is a statue of Christ that is similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio, as well as a cable car, and plenty of beaches. It was kind of a strange city because everything there was planned--all of the buildings there are relatively new, and it was a calmer, more Brazilian Rio de Janeiro.

The group that went was basically all foreigners. There were three from USA, two from Italy, two from Peru, one from France, one from Germany, one from Nigeria, one from Mexico, and one from Brasil. It was really interesting since everybody has such different backgrounds. Everybody was here on some sort of exchange or a part of AIESEC. Since we spent most of the time together at the beach, it was a weekend of English and Spanish and Italian.

Once we arrived there, the trip as a whole was fun. Before that, we were supposed to meet at Terminal Norte at 18:15 to take the bus to the center terminal and then to the rodoviária to catch the 19:20 bus to Camboriú, of which some of us had already bought tickets for. (Pause, while I rant about how you need a CPF for everything in Brasil. So annoying. It always complicates everything, and you can only purchase a certain number of bus tickets per CPF. And not to mention how horrible the websites for a lot of bus companies are. As great as Catarinese is, they really really need to upgrade their website. Ok, rant over). Therefore, I planned to take my Canto do Rio bus, which usually comes at 18h to Terminal Norte. Since the Canto do Rio bus has a mind of its own and comes whenever it feels like it, it didn't arrive until 18:15, and there was traffic the entire way to Terminal Norte. Just fantastic. The bus driver kept on steeping on the gas pedal, but the bus didnt't (well, couldn't) move anywhere. Finally, at 18:45, I arrived at Terminal Norte, where just about everybody was waiting.

Since it takes some time to go from Terminal Norte to the rodoviária, we decided to exit the terminal and take a taxi from the "Ponto de Taxi," where there should always be at least one taxi waiting. Of course, when you most need something, it is never there. In panic, we called the number listed on the wall, and the telephone inside the wall started ringing. It's a good thing that I live so far away and chat with taxi drivers on that long drive to my house to get their cards (since there are so many independent taxi companies in Joinville). We called one of the cab numbers, and soon after began the race against time to get to the rodoviária. We made it with legitimately a minute to spare, and those who had previously bought tickets boarded the 19:20 bus.

After a quick hour and a half bus ride, we were in Balneário Camboriú. In finding ways to economize (as always!), we decided to walk from the rodoviária to our hostel, about a 3.5 kilometer walk at night. Though it probably was not the smartest choice, we made it there, only to see a sign that the owner of the hostel would be back in five minutes. We waited and waited, but nobody came. So we decided to go to the beach. All of a sudden it was 23:30, and we decided it was probably best to head back to the hostel to see if the people were back. And yes, the people were back, and boy, at first glance, they were pretty creepy. There were two guys from Argentina, one from Spain, and two girls from Portugual, who we didn't see until the next day.

Andrea (Italia), Priscila (Brasil), Andrea (México), Kevin (USA),
Christophe (France), Anthony (Nigeria), Magdalena (Germany),
Ruhy (USA), Francesco (Itália), me,  Fátima (Perú), Luz (Perú)  

On Saturday, the weather was about 28 degrees celcius and sunny, which was perfect for the beach. So, of course, we went to the beach, which was about a five minute walk. It's funny that the street right in front of the beach was called Avenida Atlântica because it was the exact same in Rio de Janeiro. We swam, played football,  took plenty of photos with and coconut juice from a coconut, walked on the beach, and just relaxed for the entire afternoon. Around 16h, the sun set to the west behind the large skyscrapers. Though that didn't stop us from just hanging out on the beach, I still wonder who's genius idea was it to build sky scrapers that block the sun when it's setting.

After the man whom we rented beach chairs was closing his shop and wanted his chairs back, we left to find food. Similar to Rio, I got a cheese salada (x-salada). However, unlike Rio, it cost twice as much, and I didn't get food poisoning from eating it. After dinner, we met the two Portuguese girls (who each had a bottle  of wine in their hands). Meu deusshhhh, they spoke such a strange Portuguese. We left to find a nice party and got super lost. Well, not really. It's just that nobody knew how to get there. Eventually, one of the Argentines was like we can either walk 30 blocks, or we can take a bus.

Let me just tell you, the buses in Balneário Camboriú are so strange. They weren't like your normal transit buses. Instead, they looked like the touristic buses being pulled by a truck. To make a strange bus ride even stranger, we passed by Mario and Luigi. And as soon as we disembarked the bus, there was a fountain with a cow on a jet ski. Well, to be fair, we probably got off the bus because we saw the cow on the jet ski, and not the other way around.

Then Sunday was a day of laziness. When I woke up around 12:30, it felt like it was still 8h or something early like that. My friend Kevin came into the room shortly after and said that they were heading to the beach. So I went left the others sleeping and went with them to the beach. We played frisbee, did ballet, hung out, and found food. After awhile, we went back to the hostel since we  needed to leave semi-soon to catch the bus back to Joinville only to find the others still sleeping. It was 15:30.

Shortly after, we left by foot for the rodoviária and took the scenic route to get there. We passed the statue of Cristo Luz, or Christ Light. Compared to Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, Cristo Luz is all right. It was still nice to see it though. We got to the rodoviária and quickly boarded a bus back to Joinville, where we had dinner at the oh-so-classy Angeloni Supermarket and eventually headed to our respective homes.

Cristo Luz in Balneário Camboriú

And now is my final week in Joinville, meaning that this is probably my last post in Brasil, unless something really exciting, like it's sunny for the rest of the week, happens. I think I'm kind of ready to go home. I do miss my sister, and I know that she misses me a lot as she has been emailing and gchatting me every single day letting me know how many days before I come home. I also need to brush up on my English. Today at work, I was writing my transition guide, and I could not express myself properly in English. Also, the word photograph in English is spelled with a 'ph,' not as foto. So I guess I'm excited to speak normal English with people again.

But at the same time I know that I'll miss the friends that I've made here. Over the weekend, Ruhy, the other American who is also leaving on next Sunday, kept on thinking "in exactly a week, we'll be on an airplane." We also spent a large part of the weekend talking about how much we'll miss each other. With the crew, everyday is a surprise, and you never know where the conversation/you will end up.

Looking back on my bucket list that I made about three weeks ago, there are the museums and running from my house to Univille and back, for a total of 10.2 kilometers. After having cafezinho after café da tarde and bolos everyday, I'm not sure how physically possible running will be. Maybe it is time to go home and then back to school, where I have no excuse not to go to the gym, considering I will be living across the street from it.