Cycling and couchsurfing are two things which will most certainly take you to unexpected places. Why? Because both of them take you where locals are. And unless you are equipped with an amazingly good imagination, staying with locals will always have some surprises in store for you. Like a Brazilian wedding.
The great thing about staying with locals is that you have no idea what locals do (at least on that specific day you end up staying with them). So combining cycling and couchsurfing can lead to many surprises. Apart from a Brazilian wedding, it has lead me to a glass house of an artist I never met (not before nor after staying at his place), staying 1,5 months with friends of a friend and much more! Let’s concentrate on that wedding for now.
Cycling and couchsurfing to a wedding
In April 2016 I was cycling towards Campos Novos from Florianopolis, in the state of Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil. I had estimated my velocity to Campos Novos quite optimistically and my future couchsurfing host, Maiara, came to pick me up as I was close enough for a car, yet too far away for a bicycle. (By the way, as I was waiting for Maiara, a man from the only local pub in town proposed to me.) In a Campos Novos Maiara took me to visit some local farmers and to a “baile gaucho“, a typical, local dancing event. As she was on her way to visit her parents, she also invited me to her family home in Palotina, Paranà. As I was down with fever and dying to meet a Brazilian family, I happily accepted the invite.
In Palotina, the women of the family had made a towel for me reading “Sissi” without even knowing me, the mother kept cooking the best possible meals, we went for a shopping trip to Paraguay and only a couple of days from my arrival, I found myself at a Brazilian wedding. Why? Because a friend of Maiara was getting married. As Maiara’s guest, I too, was invited. (Not a minor detail: as I went to Finland for my “mid-term break”, I left my bicycle at Maiara‘s parents’ place.)
Strangerless observes:
- The wedding cake is usually fake (it’s only there for the pictures)
- Women are given flip-flops when the party starts (or they bring them from home)
- The wedding bouquet is not always thrown (at this wedding, the bride cut silk laces until only one was left uncut)
For more stories inspired by Couchsurfing, see e.g. CAUCARIBE – COLOMBIAN FOLKLORE MUSIC IN POPAYÁN, THE COMPETITIVE TRAVELLER SYNDROME or PARAGUAY: MEMORIES OF A DICTATORSHIP.
Update from 2026
Some years from writing this post, I was at another Brazilian wedding – my own one.
