Soft white sand beaches, some of the best surfing spots in the world,
green rolling hills, sparkling lagoons, a historical city centre with colourful
old buildings and a vibrant market, lively beach bars and cafés, fresh oysters
cultivated just off the island and enough seafood restaurants to satisfy any
gastronomy lover. Voted as the best place to live in Brazil with a high quality
of life, what’s not to love about Florianopolis?
A view over Lagoon Conceição
Soft white sand dunes
Affectionately known as Floripa, Florianopolis is the capital city of
Santa Catarina state in Southern Brazil. The city is divided in two: the
industrial sector is situated on the mainland while the historic city centre
and beach resorts reside across the bay on the island of Santa Catarina. Three
bridges link the two with an old suspension bridge being the most picturesque
and iconic of the city skyline even though it is no longer open to
traffic.
The city centre on the west side of the island comfortably
juxtapositions a growing and modern city with its efficient three lane highway,
high rise apartments blocks and multiple shopping malls with an old city centre
with its 16th century colonial fortresses, markets and parks. The
northern part of the island is full of popular beach resorts that get crammed
with visitors enjoying the perfect beaches and flatter swimming conditions in
the summer months while the eastern part of the island is characterised by
quaint pousadas, the best beaches for surfing and many seafood restaurants. The
southern part of the island combines charming fishing villages with picturesque
beaches and since the late 1980’s, successful oyster farming initiatives. A 5
day long weekend in the middle of ‘winter’ was the perfect opportunity to
explore Florianopolis.
Mercado Público in the old city centre
Florianopolis Cathedreal
Old colourful buildings in the city centre
Gorgeous tree in a city park
Sunset over the ocean from a city promenade
Floripa is about 1500 km South of where we live but since Vitoria is
relatively poorly connected, it took two flights with a combined flying time of
about 2 hours to reach our destination. Since the island is quite large, we
rented a car to be independent of taxis and busses. Our pousada was located on the
eastern side of the island right next to the Tamar Project in Barra da Lagoa with
direct access to Praia Barra da Lagoa. Every morning we enjoyed a sunrise walk
on the beach followed by breakfast in our room. Most of the day was spent
exploring different parts of the island with a big late seafood lunch inbetween
and a sunset walk on different beaches. Our evenings were chilled with coffee dates
and reading books to recover from a day in the sun.
Praia Barro do Lagoa
Sunrise walks on the beach!
The river mouth at Praia Barro do Lagoa
Looking for that elusive perfect pansy shell
The afternoon we arrived we found lunch on the edges of Lagoon Conceição
in the form of an eat all you want seafood buffet at O Querida. It was a good
deal! After lunch we took a drive and found ourselves in town walking on the
promenade watching the sun go down and the lights of the city come on. On Friday
we returned to the city centre to explore the Mercado Público and enjoyed a
walk through the narrow colourful streets discovering the park, the cathedral
and other interesting old buildings. The rest of the day was spent exploring
the northern section of the island with mango and ginger salmon for lunch at Garra Azul (The Blue Claw) on the beach at Ponta das Canas followed by a sunset walk on Praia
Brava, one of our favourite beaches of the trip.
The beach at Ponta das Canas
Lunch at Garra Azul
Salmon with Mango and Ginger, yummy!
Boibs at Praia Brava
Proof that we once had a flip flop tan!
Various sunset pics
Saturday’s exploring started at the Tamar Project next to our Pousada. Tamar
is a successful non-profit organisation concerned with sea turtle conservation
and the rehabilitation of sea turtle populations on the coastline of Brazil. The
Tamar base in Florianopolis is the most southern base in Brazil and is much
bigger than the one in Vitoria that we visited previously. They have more turtles
here and much bigger pools for them. The turtles seemed particularly active
when we visited and we really enjoyed a morning of turtle gazing, especially
when they come up to breathe.
Visiting Tamar!
Loggerhead turtles (25 - 30 years old) coming up for air
After Tamar we took a drive to the small fishing village of Ribeirão da
Ilha in the south western part of the island. This section of the island is
known for oyster farming and its many oyster restaurants. Started in the late 1980’s,
oyster farming has brought stability and prosperity to many local fishermen. Some
oyster farmers have opened their own restaurants from where to sell their produce
while others sell their oysters to local companies for further distribution to
Rio and São Paulo.
We visited one of the local favourite oyster restaurants for lunch. With
a pier jutting out into the ocean, Ostradamus is the perfect setting to enjoy
juicy oysters. With a large variety of preparation methods on offer as well as
other seafood options, it was tough choosing what to try. We eventually settled
on 4 dishes covering the various oyster cooking methods: the raw ceviche style
with red onions and lime juice, baked with blue cheese and pear, poached with ginger
and cognac, and poached with martini. The presentation of the dishes was
original and beautiful and the oysters themselves deliciously plump and
succulent. We really enjoyed trying the different styles but Bron definitely
preferred the cooked oysters to the raw ones!
Quaint streets of Ribeirão da Ilha
The best place for oysters
Oysters!
With cognac and ginger
We tried to find a beach for sunset but were too late after an extended
lunch. We were a bit sad to miss out on the beautiful beaches on the south
eastern end of the island but the traffic made moving around a challenge. It would
typically take an hour just to do 20 km! The traffic can be attributed to a city
that has outgrown its road infrastructure, many trucks and busses on the road,
impolite driving and it being a long weekend. If the traffic was this bad on a
long weekend in winter, I can only imagine what peak summer season must look
like!
Pre-sunset at Ribeirão da Ilha looking out onto oyster baskets
On Sunday morning we enjoyed a lovely long walk covering the length of the
popular surfing and party beach Praia Mole and adjacent (unknown to us, nudist
beach) Praia Galheta. Nudist part aside, Praia Mole and Galheta were 2 of our
favourite Floripa beaches. Sunday was the hottest day of the weekend and
perfect to spend the day on the beach. We were super blessed with gorgeous hot
sunny days all weekend. Floripa can be very rainy, indeed the 2 weeks before our
trip was just bucketing. We felt extremely lucky to have 5 glorious days. Lunch
saw us back at Lagoon Conceição for sole with prawns, capers and mushrooms done
in butter at a restaurant called O Barba Negra (Black Beard). Too delicious! Afterwards we returned to 'our beach' for some lazing before sunset.
View between Praia Mole and Praia Galheta
Praia Galheta
Friendly crab
Relaxing end to a hot sunny day
More sunset pics
And then it was Monday and time to head back to Vitoria =( But first, an
extra-long sunrise walk on the beach looking for that perfect pansy shell.
Thank you Floripa for a wonderful weekend!
This was our last Brazilian and South American getaway for now. After 2
years we are leaving Brazil. We will be
enjoying a much deserved long holiday for the month of July road tripping our
way through South Africa. And then it’s on to the next as yet unconfirmed destination.
Vote here for where you would like to see the boibs and the clog blog go next!
Details coming soon, watch this space!
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