São Francisco do Sul

   My next trip would be with a new set of friends!  I got my internship with the help of Intern Brazil (a third party connection company... no I am not getting paid to say this haha) and this group would include Marcio along with two others who were part of Intern Brazil's program, Natasha (far right) and John (far left).  We took a trip to Natasha's beach house and it was an awesome experience!

A view from the front window!

   In the morning on Saturday we went surfing and played on the beach.  It was my first time surfing and the waves were a bit small but I got up for a few short rides.

   In the afternoon we took on the town in this sweet ride and visited a few other beaches on the peninsula.

   After a night of playing a Brazilian card game, truco, we got up Sunday morning and I got to experience another first, stand up paddle boarding!  The ocean was calm and the sun felt good so I just kept on going.  Must have spent at least an hour out on the water and made it about half way to the island over my right shoulder! 

Maringá

   With an open weekend I took a short trip to Maringá, the third largest city in Paraná and where Filipe (my lifeline in some situations haha) is originally from.  Overall it was a relaxing weekend, with the touristic highlight being Catedral Basilica Menor Nossa Senhora da Gloria.  You can get to the top of it, however when we went it wasn't open.

Yea this cone is hollow...

How we took the last pic haha.

The other cool thing about Maringá is the public parks.  Basically a jungle in the middle of a city, the park hosted a number of monkeys who you could get quite close to!