Florianópolis, Itapema, Curtiba

We have been surprised by Brazil. Nature is much more varied and interesting than we thought, and the cities are impressive with many huge buildings and excellent infrastructure. Everywhere is clean and tidy, footpaths are easy to walk along, and there is space for pedestrians to move even though there most certainly are a lot of cars! The hotels have been the cleanest we have been in so far, and we manage to make ourselves understood with a mix of body language, Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Here are some photos from the road from the border with Paraguay to São Paulo.

Florianópolis

Florianópolis is a city on Ihla de Santa Catarina, in the Atlantic. It has been ranked the safest city to live in Brazil, and many foreigners move there. The city is very pleasant and we spent a couple of days walking around enjoying it. The lake Lagoa de Conceição is the most famous area for tourism, but it has its limitations as the water is unsuitable for swimming.

Itapema

We ended up in Itapema by chance, traffic was terrible with long queues and more trucks than we could count. As we passed Pôrto Belo, Harold remembered that it is one of the most famous beach resorts in Brazil, and he thought we needed to see it. So we went there, and the beach was packed and the weather very summery. Traffic was dense, but it moved. After driving around without finding much of interest we looked for a hotel a bit further out, and ended up in Itapema. It was a good hotel, and next to it was an outlook tower and a very nice restaurant where we enjoyed an afternoon eating so much typical food that we could hardly move.

One of the waiters told us that all the empty buildings are not abandoned, they are waiting to sell off plan to finish them. There will be none left over soon, it is a very fast growing area. The square meter price of real estate is some of the highest in the country.

There is a special area, Bombinhas, where the residents have decided that there will be no further construction to keep the place quieter. To enter this area in summer, you will have to pay an entrance fee per vehicle, and then you are allowed to enjoy it for 24 hours. Here the only hope of buying something is when a current owner sells, and the prices are, of course, very high for this reason.

Curitiba

This was a stop over on the way from Florianópolis to São Paulo, and we spent the afternoon with some typical Brazilian lunch food. People choose food from a huge buffet, and pay per kilo. It is very much worth it, it is a cheap way to get good food. Harold eats more than Karin...

We are very happy about what we eat in Brazil. The breakfasts are nice and varied, and the only thing to be a little confused over is the quality of fresh produce in the supermarkets. Perhaps locals buy all their food in markets?