Florianopolis

FLORIANOPOLIS

When, on my return from Uruguay, the Brazilian Immigration Officer at the airport of Florianópolis tells me that I am not allowed to stay much longer in Brazil, and he even writes down the maximum number of remaining days, I know that I should not risk the CAN$40 per overstaying day. My tourist visa is clearly approaching its end and it is time to think about my return flight to Vancouver and say my farewells. My longest visit, including my teaching hours, was located in Florianópolis (or Floripa), where I stayed at different addresses, but always at lovely locations.

Floripa sign

hard-working students

Florianópolis is a beautiful island just off the coast of Santa Catarina state in the south of Brazil, linked to the mainland by a couple of bridges. The whole of the island is one city, but its centre lies near the main bridge and has a bustling old marketplace, the Mercado.

Mercado

Box 33, Mercado

Away from the centre the main roads curve around the low, forest-covered mountains and past a mix of urbanized and farmland areas. The island boasts 42 magnificent beaches (Wasn't 42 also the ultimate, magical answer to Life, the Universe and Everything in "A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"?). However, a long-time, retired resident who happens to be on the same bus as me and who speaks fluent English and German, has informed me that the number is actually about one hundred, if you include all the small and nameless beaches of the island. I definitely have not had the opportunity to see everything, but managed to visit at least a number of them.

Canasvieiras Beach

                                       Canasvieiras Beach

There are some places overflowing with scantily-clad tourists, bikini vendors and food stall chefs, like the beaches of Canasvieiras and Cachoeira do Bom Jesus. There are a few areas for wealthy visitors staying in expensive accommodation, like the beaches of Ingleses and Jurerê. But wherever you enter the sea, the friendly goddess of the sea Jemanja will welcome you and you can say Hello to her.

Ingleses Beach

Jemanja

You can also find  long stretches of fine, white sand with only a lone swimmer every 300 meters, like the southern strip at Pântano do Sul or the south-eastern Amarção.

 Armação

Pantâno do Sul

Then there are beaches that are exposed to the wild waves of the Atlantic Ocean to the east and where the surfers congregate, for instance Campeche, Santinho, or Matadeiro. On one part of this oceanic coast, Moçambique Beach, a friend unsuccessfully tried to persuade me to join him for surfing ("Sorry, kid, not my cup of tea; it is exciting enough that I  saw the traces of a venomous snake on the path to this beach"). He had to ride the waves alone, with nobody else in the water, while I was the spectator with nobody else on the deserted beach.

Santinho Beach

Santinho Beach

Matadeiro

 Rocks between Matadeiro and Amarção

Campeche Beach

But the western side of the island also has some picturesque beaches away from the Atlantic, with magnificent views of the mainland opposite, such as the sands and rocks of Santo Antônio de Lisboa.

And then there are lots of tiny, narrow beaches behind people's houses, on the quiet, south-western side of the island at Ribeirão da Ilha, where charming colonial houses are only a few km away from the continent on the other side of the water, and where the sea water is warm, clear and calm.

Ribeirão

Florianópolis can also offer its residents and visitors a swim in fresh water, because it has a few popular lakes . The largest is the Lago da Conceição, which is lined with lots of small shops, restaurants and cafés, so that you can buy your surfboards, sandwiches and fresh coconut juice nearby. At one place, the lake is only a few hundred meters away from the sea (at the beach of Praia Mole), with the north-south coastal road separating the two bodies of water.

Lago da Conceição

Lagoinha Pequena

When soon I arrive in winter back home, the Floripa summer will no doubt be missed.

Blumenau, an un-German, German town

AN UN-GERMAN GERMAN TOWN

Various Brazilians have recommended a visit to Blumenau in Santa Catarina state. It is a town that was built by German immigrants over the last one and a half century or so, and is still proud of its European roots. Its Oktoberfest attracts hoards of tourists every year, and any promotional leaflets show smiling and laughing white people drinking beer at big gatherings. I decided to check out the place myself.

I arrived in heavy rain, clearly reminiscent of what could be a normal day in Western Europe. The hostel that I had booked had Austria in its name, but I had chosen it more for reasons of location than anything else. The Brazilian owner couldn't speak German but his family name did contain a "u" with an umlaut to give away his ancestry. After having dropped off my suitcase, I grabbed a tourist map and headed for the  well-known Vila Germanica.

It turned out to be a lot smaller in surface area than expected, and a lot more touristy and commercial. More strikingly, it displayed a "typically German" culture that I'm sure would make my friends from Germany roll around the floor with laughter at the degree of kitsch. The images of their 'Heimat' were almost like a Grimm fairy tale, but definitely not like something that I recognized as a realistic portrayal of contemporary Germany. The female shopkeepers were wearing a "Dirndl", with its full skirts, its white blouses with puff sleeves, and its tight-fitting bodices. The images of men showed that the default for their outfit was leather Lederhosen with a felt, Alpine hat. Also, the architecture and figurines in Vila Germanica made me giggle, with their quaint, traditional colours and styles. So this was what visitors to this town were presented with as being characteristically German?

I chose one of the restaurants with a view of the little square. The menu was restricted to supposedly Bavarian dishes. I didn't have the choice: I had to go for beer and a dinner with some sauerkraut, potatoes and lots of meat - no less than two kinds of sausages and two pieces of pork. No salad? Looking for something green on my plate, I did find a measly, little sprig of parsley. I realized that I hadn't consumed that much meat for a long time, but hey, when in Rome....

A tour through the town showed several buildings with whitewashed walls and wooden beams. Balconies and window shutters conjured up views of Swiss and Austrian villages, albeit less authentic here. The neat flower beds, public statues and clean streets were also a reminder of many Germanic towns, as well as the look of people on the street. Still, I regretted a bit that the general population didn't show the wonderful racial mix that I had observed in big cities further up north in Brazil - or in today's cosmopolitan centres like Berlin, München or Köln, for that matter. I thought that Blumenau was a very quaint German town that was rather un-German.