Flitting about in Florianopolis…

Our first order of business in Florianopolis, was to find tyres for our bikes…

Box Motocicletas had Michelin’s in stock, although at a price that made my eyes water…!! Import duties in Brazil are sky-high, and I had to pay almost three times what the tyres cost back in South Africa, and almost double what they had cost me in Australia…

Under a cloud-filled sky, we crossed back onto the mainland to find tyres...

Box Motocicletas is a small but professionally run motorcycle dealer...

Jean Silva, the owners son, is a former track champion, and heads the Sales department...

Andreia was very helpful, even though she spoke hardly a word of English... She brought us chocolates as an after lunch snack...

After introductions had been completed, our bikes were put on a cargo lift and taken upstairs to have their tyres fitted…

Roger decided to buy a new set as well, even though his rear tyre could still have carried him for a few thousand kilometres more…

When I saw that the worskshop upstairs was more than just a tyre-changing place, I asked if they did services too… Jean confirmed that they did, and sent out for the oil that I specified…

He then called his friend from BMW who confirmed that the 140 000 km service was a minor one, and that all that was needed was an oil change…

I assumed that this would also include setting the valves, but this assumption was incorrect…!! I only discovered this a day or two later when I realised that the bike was nowhere near as receptive to throttle change as it normally was after a service…

The Big Fella heads upstairs for a new set of tyres and an oil change...

The new and the not so new...!! After 19 250 km, my rear tyre was just about done...!!

After the rear tyre had been removed, I compared it to the new one that was lined up nearby…

“Do you really think I need a tyre change, Jean…??” I asked… “I think this tyre can get me to Rio at least…!!”

This tyre needed chnaging a few weeks ago already…!!” he laughed… “I would never ride a bike with a tyre in this condition…!!”

And that sort of convinced me to go ahead with the tyre change…!!

We went downstairs and left the two young guys to service my bike and change the tyres on both the Big Fella and Roger’s Triumph…

Jean’s father, and the owner of the company, then invited us to a nearby restaurant for lunch, where we were served a typical home-cooked meal out on the front porch of what was once a home…

The plates of food just kept on coming…!! The owner and his wife scurried back and forth bringing all manner of meats and vegetables, while we piled our plates high and got stuck in…!!

Back at the workshop, we were served a tot each of Aquadiente, (Fire Water), a potent home=brew similar to our own Mampoer…

It burnt all the way down to my stomach, and made my toes curl up in my boots…!!

Roger tossed his back as he had seen me do, and we all laughed when his eyes shot open and a huge breath exploded out of his mouth… This stuff was very potent, and we quickly called a halt to further offerings, by explaining that we still had to ride out into the traffic and back onto Santa Catarina Island where we were staying…

I had visions of having to sleep on the workshop floor if we had partaken of any more of this fiery liquor…!!

Lunch with the Box Gang...!!

Superb tasting, home cooked meal...

The following day we went out for a ride to the fat side of the island, which was only a few kilometres away, but through quite hectic traffic…

We rode out to the lake on the eastern side of the island...

At the top of the short and steep pass, we stopped to check out the view...

We rode around a lake that was shaped in the figure 8, and crusied up over another ridge and down to a little village on whose shores was one of the most popular beaches on the island…

Many surfing and kite-surfing competitions are held here annually… The beach was crowded with a younger set of people, many of the girls showing more flesh than we were used to seeing on a public beach…!!

In Brazil, sex and football seem to go hand in hand...

Roger and I ordered lunch from a restaurant that had a huge deck overlooking the beach, and while we ate, watched the coming and goings of the local sun-seekers…

Just when we thought we had seen it all, another sight would present itself that had us slack-jawed… If my grandmother, a staunch Catholic, was alive, and saw what we were seeing on this beach, she would no doubt have taken me by the ear, (none too gently, I might add…!!) and hurried me in the direction of the parking lot…!!

The beach at San Joachim was filled with sun-seekers, even though it was midweek...

The Island of Santo Catarinha on which one half of Florianopolis resides... Our route covered the centre and northern parts of the island...

After lunch we rode out to the northern reaches of the island, to Praia dos Ingeles, and turned west again towards the exclusive beach and residential area of Jurere, where footballers such as the great Pele, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos etc have homes…

Having had our fill of the slow riding between the various villages, we found the entrance to the highway and headed south again for Centro, and back to our hotel…

On the way, we stopped at an upmarket shopping centre where the Apple Store was located and I bought another I-Pod to replace the one that I had lost in Buenos Aires…

I was more than a little put out when I had to pay more than double than what I had paid in Brisbane, Australia…!! And always the shrug of the shoulders and the words “Import Taxes” to explain the high prices…!!

But at least I would now have music in my ears on those long and boring rides I would still have to make between the places I wanted to see… Riding without music, and not having music to listen to before I went to sleep, had been a bit trying to say the least…!!

It had been a long, hot, and interesting day, and was the last we would be spending in Florianapolis, a city that I would certainly recommend visitors to see…

I had managed to get new tyres, have the bike serviced and replace the I-Pod, all things that I thought I would have to have done in Rio de Janeiro…

We would have more time to enjoy the sights there…!!

©GBWT 2012