Ilha de Santa Catarina..... Brazil

OK, so I´m on an island in Brazil. It´s stunning....

There´s the proof! The place I´m staying is a little more expensive than I´ve been partaking in, but worth it. Pool, great breakfasts, great hosts, nice people staying here, and a kitchen where I can actually cook (which I´ve missed!). I´ve got five nights here to explore the island, it´s about 40km long, the North is quite developed, and the South is desolate (chose to stay in the North after the fishing village experience of Punta del Este). There´s boat trips and all sorts to do, and it´s 35 and sunny one day, and 35 and sunny the next. Perfect.

There´s also hiking a plenty, as I accidentally discovered on what was meant to be a short walk this morning.... In bathers and thongs with only 500ml of water, I hiked about God knows how long up a big mountain to take the pic above, and here I am in the pic below hot and bothered ..... It was worth it, though now I´m knackered and wondering how I´m ever going to do the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

There were strange rustlings in the grass in the forest all the way up the goat trail through dense dense forest up the mountain, which I chose to ignore, and very large spider webs. I was just starting to think paranoid thoughts about all the things I´ve read about bird eating spiders and wondering if it was the Amazon or Brazilian rainforests that housed them - when I saw a massive gecko dart into the undergrowth (with a great sense of relief) - I realised what the rustling was.

I checked out some of the indigenous locals at the foot of the mountain, too...

And if you weren´t feeling jealous already, here´s another pic of the gorgeous beach (this is the actual beach - Praia do Santinho where I´m staying) and view!

I miss work so much (not).

And as promised, here are some pics from earlier in the trip....

School kids that insisted I take their photo with their teacher, out the front of Teatro Solis in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Inside the Teatro Solis in Montevideo - the one stunning thing in that dirty stinking hole.

The picture that will be one day published in a magazine (Punta del Este) - and to that cranky dude that yelled at me, everyone please note its called ´La Mona´by Marrio Irrarazabal, of Chile.

Punta del Este by day...