Florianópolis is proud to have its own micareta, the Portuguese word for a carnival taking place outside the traditional dates for the carnival. Folianópolis is its name and this year it will take place between 12 and 14 November. Check out the line-up at the party’s website. The presence of usual suspects such as Ivete Sangalo, Chiclete con Banana or Banda Eva is confirmed. The venue for Folianópolis is the Passarela do Samba in the city of Florianópolis.

Destination: Florianópolis is our main blog post on this popular destination in Southern Brazil.

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To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific destination card devoted to Porto Belo, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

PORTALS

There is one portal with complete information on Porto Belo: Porto Belo online. You can also check out the section with tourist information on the local authority’s website: Prefeitura de Porto Belo. Further information on the section of the Guia Santa Catarina devoted to Porto Belo.

WEATHER

Average rainfall and temperatures for Porto Belo (data from Camboriú) at weather.msn.com

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Publishing house Empresa das Artes, with an extense travel-related catalogue, is enabling free online access to the full contents of several of its guides. To read the guides you need to access the tool provided by Book Stand Panrotas.

The available guides are:

Amazonas
Bahia
Goiás
Mato Grosso
Pará
Paraná
Santa Catarina

To open each guide, click on CLIQUE para ler esta publicação. A new window will open where you will be able to read the guide. Unfortunately, the guides are available in Portuguese only, but if you have a basic grasp of the language you will find tons of background information as well as beautiful pictures and maps.

As well as the guides listed here there are a few commercial publications from Panrotas, a trade magazine. Congratulations to the private companies responsible for the initiative.

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RELATED POSTS:
National parks: online brochures

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For the European tourist arriving in Brazil, attending the Oktoberfest in Blumenau, state of Santa Catarina, won’t probably rank high among its priorities. After all, they have the real McCoy less than a couple of hour’s away from most European airports. German beer is not an item that populates the imagination of the visitor when it comes to Brazil. However, the Oktoberfest in Blumenau (the biggest of its kind in Latin America) is as legitimate a representative of the cultural diversity of Brazil as capoeira in Salvador or samba in Rio de Janeiro.

[photo by ariel martini reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

Blumenau’s Oktoberfest takes place in an area of heavy German colonization. The 2009 edition will take place between 1 and 18 October and it will be a very special edition as it happens one year after the catastrophic floods that devastated Blumenau and its region. Spirits – no pun intended, should run high. At the party’s website you will find lots of detailed information.

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The latest update to the satellite images used by Google in Google Earth and Google Maps brought maximum resolution to existing coverage for at least three important tourist destinations in Brazil: Florianópolis, Salvador and São Paulo. As well as the cities of Brasilia and Goiania.

These ultra high-resolution images show an spectacular level of detail.

1. Florianópolis

The area with maximum resolution is quite smallish and basically encompasses the urban centre of the island. The Mercado Público and the Puente Hercílio Luz are two structures than can be seen in detail.

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2. Salvador

All the tourist sights of Salvador are in maximum resolution, a guarantee of endless hours of fun.

The Forte de São Marcelo

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The Farol da Barra

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The façade of the Convento de São Francisco in the Pelourinho

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The orixás at the Dique do Tororó

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The igreja do Bonfim

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3. São Paulo

Only part of the city has been upgraded, but most tourist sights are within the area of the upgrade.

The MASP

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The Catedral da Sé

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The Copan building

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Because the Christmas Tree at the Parque do Ibirapuera can be spotted we estimate the images are quite recent.

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GoogleMaps on the Brazil Travel Blog
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One night in Florianópolis we went out for a pizza. We had driven by the Nave Mãe pizza parlour a few days earlier and decided we would give it a go. Only later we discovered it is one of the Florianópolis haunts of local celeb and national heroe Gustavo Kuerten (tennis player). The pizzaria is on the southern shore of the Lagoa da Conceição, where there is a considerable amount of restaurants. Access without a car is not easy.

The dining room has individual lamps on the tables that help it recreate an atmosphere of intimacy. It is quite dark inside.

Nave Mãe prepares its pizzas with wholemeal dough. Its menu is quite, shall we say, ‘lunatic’. The names of the pizzas relate to galaxies and the space race (Saturno, Terra, Soyuz, Sputnik, Cruzeiro do Sul, Siryus, and so on). We ordered a pizza with three different parts. Asteróide (tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni and oregano), Lua (tomato sauce, mozzarella, bacon and oregano) and Soyuz (tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, ‘catupiry’ cheese and pineapple). R$34 for a large pizza for two.

For dessert, we shared a conventional petit gateau, chocolate cake with ice cream.

What with one thing and the other we spent R$57. For someone who lives in São Paulo it is always difficult to judge pizzas prepared anywhere else – the risk of being unfair in our assessment is noticeable. The pizza was delicious. The base was slightly thickier than we are used to, but prepared with top quality ingredients.

The pizzaria Nave Mãe is on the rua Laurindo Januário da Silveira, 1296.

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[Photo by Renata Diem reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific post devoted to Balneário Camboriú, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

There are several portals with thorough information on Bombinhas. Best among them are Bombinhas.com, Bombinhas Online, Bombinhas.com.br, Guia Bombinhas and the City Council’s own website Prefeitura Municipal de Bombinhas.

Interesting info can also be found in pages covering the entire state of Santa Catarina (where Bombinhas is found). Santa Catarina Turismo has a section where Bombinhas is mentioned. Other sites with information are Bela Santa Catarina and Guia Santa Catarina.

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[Photo by unnamedsoldier reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific post devoted to Balneário Camboriú, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

Camboriú has an official website: Secretária de Turismo de Balneário Camboriu (in Portuguese only).

There are several portals, including Camboriú.com.br, Camboriu.org, praia Camboriu.com.br and guia Camboriu.com.br. They all have sections on accommodation.

Interesting info can also be found in pages covering the entire state of Santa Catarina (where Balneário Camboriú is found). Santa Catarina Turismo has a section in English where Camboriú is mentioned. Other pages with information include Bela Santa Catarina and Guia Santa Catarina.

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For most visitors, Florianópolis encapsulates the perfect beach destination, and satisfaction comes in the simplest of ways: a beach recliner [sun-lounger] a sunshade and a beach. But even the most sedentary of tourists will at one stage or another want to leave the comfort of the beach where they are staying to visit other parts of the island. This entry is part of a trilogy (that also includes entries on the North and the Centre) with tips and basic guidance on the most interesting points on the island.

As it is the case with the centre of the island, in the south of Florianópolis there are two well-defined parts. To the west, the coastline facing the continent, where there are a pocket of villages showing trails of the Portuguese colonization. It is here where oysters are cultivated. There are no beaches on this part of the island. To the east, some of the most beautiful beaches on the islands and places where most tourists hardly ever go.

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On the continental side of the southern part of the island, the most interesting point is Ribeirão da Ilha, a village founded by Portuguese emigrants from the Azores islands, where some traditions are still maintained, like bobbin lace or basket making. The district of Ribeirão is the largest producer of oysters in Brazil. In the centre of the village there is an interesting sample of Portuguese colonial architecture.

Following the road southwards, pass Ribeirão, you will reach Caieira da Barra do Sul, where there is a tiny beach of calm waters.

On the eastern side of the island, from north to south, we find the following points of interest:

Leave your general queries on Florianópolis at the entry Destination: Florianópolis.

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Accommodation in Brazil has two new blog posts.

One with a full listing of Hotels and pousadas in Canasvieiras, Florianópolis and another one with another full listing of Hotels and pousadas in Jericoacoara.