"MY SACRED ISLAND - FLORIANOPOLIS " a Florianópolis Travel Page by RafaelTheSecond

We should work hard to make this wonderful folks come to Brazil more often, and I was surprised to find these lovely japonese friends in one of the less famous destinations in Brazil. It is not fair...Florianopolis should be in the list of the top of the top travellers in the world. This island is pure magic and pure paradise!

Floripa for friends, and Floripa will always remains in my memories as one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in Brazil and also it will remain as the land of spectacular friends I met and had fun with!

We are trying to meet at least twice a year because we are great friends, and we do like planning our expeditions in the tropical lands of Brazil and in the lands of the BIG NORTH, white and colourful CANADA. Here I can be considered MR. CANADA, and in Canada, my friend Pierre is known as MR. BRAZIL.

For the third time we got together, for a new brazilian adventure. the first one had RIO DE JANEIRO, PARANA STATE AND SAO PAULO STATE, and we could cover also part of Argentina in the wild Province of Misiones when we went to the Iguazu Falls Area, we camped there and it was a radical adventure trip full of funny stories, and great events.

Then we continued our trips in Canada during the winter of 2005 and we travelled up north in Quebec Province and I had the honor to visit Montreal and make this city as my SWEET HOME IN CANADA,we also had loads of fun in Ontario, specially in Ottawa and Toronto (surroundings too).

And now our third adventure together and second one in Brazil, and we focused the southern brazilian coast, going from Rio to Florianopolis. Fantastic island and capital of Santa Catarina State, we we stopped in Curitiba, Joinville, Sao Paulo again and Poa, a little pleasant tiny town in the State of Sao Paulo.

Meeting with Pierre Vezina is always special, because it is a meeting with a brother, a meeting of two blokes who are addicted in nature activities and also crazy about people and their custons.

Great honor I had again to see Pierre in my country and elad them to the best of Brazil can offer, as I usually do with the friends I keep on welcoming here!

FLORIANOPOLIS had the honor to host us, and we knew how to have ABSOLUTELY FUN in this paradise of a country known as BRAZIL

Floripa is the capital of Santa Catarina State, one of the Three States of our south region, and I must say it is the most fantastic capital in the region and one of the most beautiful capitals of Brazil! Many lakes, lagoons, more than 100 beaches, historical sites, HOT NIGHT LIFE and absolutely SPECTACULAR CARNAVAL!:)

Floripa is a gorgeous jewel! She is a young lady of 330 years old, as any youngster of her age, she is charming, absolutely gorgeous, very exotic, absolutely colourful and a little bit modern, I would say she dares to be modern, because sometimes she dictates the fashion over the country. The sun is her friend, above all in the summer, the animals love her, wild life is something very present all over her body...The water loves her, it is surrounded by the Bay and the Atlantic Ocean giving to her amazing beaches with extraordinary beauty and wilderness. She has almost 320.000 friends who really love her, friends who take care of ehr dearly, they preserve and they are proud about her, and her friends are lovely people, very positive attitude from the old to the young, her friends are open mined and love the beach, her friends has a funny accent coming from the first colonozers, very simple fishermen coming from the distant island of Azores....

She had another name before 1889, she was proudly called Nossa Senhora do Desterro, the first settler was Francisco Dias Velho, its strategical position as a nice stop for food and water in the way to the Plata River forced the portuguese paying attention of this fabulous island, but much before 1675, Desterro was a good shelter for pirates and other navegators who dare to cross that side of the Atlantic. When the republic came and the trrops came down to the south, the name of our friend was changed to Florianopolis, in honor of the Marshall Floriano Peixoto. Not so good to name a lady like Desterro with a name of a person who were not born there, but the people has lots of criativity and started to call the island informally as FLORIPA, reminding FLORES which means flower! So Floripa also can be considered as NA ISLAND FULL OF FLOWER...

And that's true, all around the island you see many flowers and lots of wild orchids too. People believe their land is sacred and magic, and FLORIPA is also known as the ILHA DA MAGIA. Or simply Magic Island.

I agree, because Floripa conquered my heart, this is the place where I alway want to come back, this is the place where I will take my friends from all over the world, ebcause I want them to see the real Brazil from such an incredible island, full of beaches, full of life and full of funny things to do. In Floripa I have great friends like Junior, my best adviser of the islands secrets, and friends like Nadia, a fabulous and brilliant local artists who made many incredible sculptures using shells and stuffs from the sea!

And all new friends I have made in my inland adventures!;)

COME TO THIS ISLAND AND DO LIKE ME, FALL IN LOVE WITH FLORIPA!

FLORIANOPOLIS IS PART OF MY ENDLESS LOVE FOR BRAZIL, MY LAND, MY SOIL AND MY HISTORY!