Sunday, March 22, 2009

My Favorite Time of the Year





Maybe it's because I arrived here last year during March and those first months were so memorable or maybe it's something else, but all I know is that I just love this time of year in Floripa. The weather is fantastic, most of the tourists are gone (it's great while they're here but it's pretty damn hectic), the waves start picking up a bit, and the parties are still amazing and, luckily, not as frequent (it's good to take break once in awhile although I never seem to do that). During the summer time everyone around here is flying around at a 100 miles per hour and doing a million things at once that there is literally no time to relax. It's basically just party, party, party. Now is the time to relax a bit and enjoy the beauty of Floripa. There are 42 beaches in Floripa and I still have yet to see so many of them. Last weekend I went to the north of the island to a beach called Lagoinha and it was stunningly beautiful. Since I live at Praia Mole, I very rarely venture out to other beaches. It's just too easy to walk across the street. However, after being at Lagoinha, I realized that I really do need to get out and see some new beaches. The good news is that I have a few visitors coming the next few weeks (including the first visit from my Dad!) so maybe I could use it as a good excuse to get out and venture a little more. Next stops will be Lagoinha do Leste and Matadero....

On an unrelated note, I always have to laugh as I consistently run into the same situation. I can't tell you how many times this has happened. A group of American guys were here this week, and I was introduced to them on Tuesday night while they were at Tatsuya. I talked to them for awhile about Floripa and everything that goes on. They had just come from Rio where they had a great time. Anyway, they were bummed because it was so slow their first few days here. They arrived on Sunday and not much was going on the first few days. I tried to explain to them that it's typically pretty mellow here in the beginning of the week. During the summer time, there are parties every day of the week but after Carnival things go back to normal. They had commented about the NY Times article, and I think they were expecting Floripa to be just one non-stop party, which it's not for those of you who have never been here. It's difficult, however, to explain this to people who want to be out every night. My response to people like this is always the same, "Just wait and you'll see." By Thursday they were still not believers and I wasn't even remotely worried. I've seen this exact thing happen 100 times. Unfortunately, the group had two guys who were leaving on Friday before things really got started so I knew they were going to miss out (I actually tried to convince them to stay because I knew Saturday's party was going to be one you wouldn't want to miss). Well, the ending of this story is always the same. The two guys who were here said yesterday was the best party of their lives. They were completely blown away, and keep in mind that these are people who live in Los Angeles and have great lives. It's not like they are living in the woods of Michigan or anything. It's just that if I know one thing about Floripa, it's this: Floripa never, ever disappoints....

I didn't have my camera last night so I don't have any photos of that party yet but I have friends who took tons of pictures. As soon as I get the photos, I will post them. We took some classics...