Florianopolis, Brazil
Florianopolis (also known as Floripa) is the capital city of Santa Catarina State in southern Brazil. It is composed of one main island, the Island of Santa Catarina, one continental part and the surrounding small isles. It has a population of 406,564 (2006/IBGE). Its metropolitan area has a population of over 821,423 inhabitants.
It is surrounded by smaller islands with forts, which protected ships in the 17th century. Most of the population lives on the island’s northern half. The southern half is more isolated and less developed. Although originally settled by the Portuguese (from the Archipelago of Azores), the city has a strong German and Italian influence, like the rest of the state. Florianópolis is a popular destination for South American tourists, because of its location and white sand beaches. Florianópolis is served by Hercílio Luz International Airport for both domestic and international flights.
There are about 42 well known beaches on Santa Catarina island, but more than 100 in all. The most well-known beaches, from North to South, are:
- Jurerê - Very developed and organized; it has many large houses in private condominiums.
- Brava - A quite small beach with wild waves (Brava means angry in Portuguese), surrounded by buildings. Very popular specially in the summer among surfers and young people.
- Cachoeira do Bom Jesus
- Canasvieiras - Popular among Argentinians and Uruguayans in the high season.
- Ingleses - A family beach named after the survivors of an English shipwreck who formed a colony there, nowadays a thriving resort town.
- Santinho - Has a well-known resort and 5,000 year old stoneworks can be observed at the rocky headland at the North end of the beach, where stoneage tribes sharpened arrowheads and other tools.
- Moçambique / Barra da Lagoa - Part of the Rio Vermelho forestry reserve, popular with surfers, shelves steeply at high tide, there’s a campsite within the reserve. It is the lengthiest beach in the city with more than 12km (about 8 miles) of sand.
- Mole - Known for its soft, ankle-deep sand (”mole”, [’mɔli], means soft in Portuguese), this is where the local crowd come to be seen. Lots of surfers, bars, coconut stalls and places to hire beach equipment. Separated from Lagoa da Conceição by a narrow isthmus of cliffs. During Carnival, the left side is famous for hosting a gay bar and gay tourists.
- Joaquina - Famous as a location for one of the twelve *ASP World Tour tournaments and also for its sand dunes where sandboarding is practised.
- Armação - Armação means trap and this is where Azorean whalers would begin driving South Atlantic Right whales towards the next, dead-end beach for slaughter. Nowadays it is a picturesque fishing village.
- Matadeiro - A natural bay, one beach South of Armação, the name means “the killing place” and this is where Atlantic Right whales were beached and slaughtered - there are many whalebones still around today. The beach can only be reached by foot.
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