Ovi presents Lukas world bike tour: carnival in Brazil

I’m sure that many of you have celebrated carnival during the last few days.And this is the case also for Lukas who has just visited Brazil on his world bike tour. Do you see the connection there? Brazil + Carnival = … read on -Pino (@haikus) When I heard that ...

I’m sure that many of you have celebrated carnival during the last few days.And this is the case also for Lukas who has just visited Brazil on his world bike tour.

Do you see the connection there? Brazil + Carnival = … read on

-Pino (@haikus)

When I heard that carnival is coming up, and that Brazilians just party four days in a row (no sleeping), I got worried. How will my cycling and carnival fit together? I wasn’t about to make it to Rio de Janeiro for the real action, so I chose the south beach coast of Brazil instead. Well, here is a short carnival summary how I managed 450 km on my way from Porto Alegre to Florianopolis.

Friday. Leaving Porto Alegre in dusk was good idea: there were 90 000 cars expected on the road to the beach that day! With a super fast riding on a freeway, just before the worst rush hour, I reached the Atlantic coast. Closer look to these southern beach resorts surprised me: no signs of carnival down here. I found a quiet place for set up my tent, and had a good sleep.

Saturday. Sunny and hot weather continued, as I rode north along the coast. First signs of carnival fuzz came around city called Torres, yet I wanted to make it further than that. Well, head wind and burning sun made me tired 30km after Torres, so I decided to call it a day in a small beach town 7km from the main road. Here I paid for an almost empty camping site (only three tents), but witnessed a very energetic party atmosphere on the beach. Sleeping wasn’t easy with the techno beat background until very morning.

Sunday. With an early start I hoped to get around the traffic, but it was a hopeless try. Trucks dominated the roads from the very beginning. So after eight hours of cycling in a crowd of cars, I was hoping to find a calm camping site for the night. A port town called Imbituba was a pleasant surprise. Yes, some party animals had costumes and followed a car in a rhythm of samba, but the camping site itself was very relaxed. People come here to escape the loud partying – said a nice fellow from Porto Alegre. He and one lady offered me a beer and some biscuits and we chatted until bedtime.

Monday. The sunrise in Imbituba was awesome, though I couldn’t waste too much time admiring it. Today I was going to reach Florianopolis, and Ilha de Santa Catarina on which “Floripa” is located. Monday made no exception in the amount of vehicles on the road, following me until Santa Catarina island. Florianopolis city center was calm, but the surroundings were not. Beaches and camping sites were packed with people. Some boys from my camping area offered me a hot dog and went to search for a night life. But earlier that day I visited Lagoa town with some carnival action, and realized I’m too tired-old-lazy-gringo to participate this party. I ate my hot dog and fell asleep at 9pm

Tuesday. The sun turned into clouds, and hard rain was expected for the last day of carnival. Many people were already packing their stuff and heading back to their homes. I still wanted to check out the southern part of the Island, so despite the rain I cycled 15km to the very end of the road. In this remote village I found a nice hostel with only few guests. The hostel keeper advised, that we should check out the carnival party on the beach, where all the nearby villagers gather. So we prepared some caipirinhas and headed for the last night’s beach party… the rain stopped, the stars appeared, and suddenly I was celebrating just a perfect carnival beach party in Brazil.

-Lukas

Source : http://blog.ovi.com/2011/03/10/ovi-presents-lukas-...