Thursday August 14^th – Day 4

            Today was a beautiful day; it was perfect for our city tour of Florianopolis.  We walked from the hotel through the colorful streets to a fountain at Largo da Alfandega then began our bus tour.  On our walk we stopped by a park with a fig tree that was unbelievable in size and age.  It is amazing that the city has preserved it for so long.  Our first destination point was one of the highest points in Florianopolis called Mirante do Morro da Cruz.  It was a wonderful view of the city and the congestion of buildings was shocking. 

 

We went to various beaches on around the island including Joaquina which is the most famous beach in Florianopolis and known for its surfing.  There were tons of beautiful sand dunes around which were gorgeous to walk on and see.  People can sandboard on the sand dunes and it looks like a lot of fun!  The weather today was wonderful and when we reached Barra da Lagoa for lunch we sat outside with a view of the beach.  The grilled fish I had was very good and perfect for the sunny surroundings.  A few of us went in the water which was not as cold as I expected, but a wonderful beach day.  After beach time we went to a cute fishing village called Santo Antonio de Lisboa.  It was colonized by the Azoreans and surprisingly is a large area for harvesting oysters in Brazil.

When we got back to the hotel we walked through the streets to the Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina for a speaker focused on renewable energy.  The program is Renewable Electricity Generation in South America (REGSA) and centers in Chile, Bolivia, Hamburg, and Brazil.  The speaker discussed the importance of diversifying the energy sources and using renewables.  He brought up the current drought in Brazil and the possible power outages due to the main energy source in the country being hydroelectric.  He talked about the increase and potential for wind energy in the northeast and the use of ethanol for fuel.  He clarified the misconception that biofuel land use for energy takes away from farm land by saying a very small area of land is used for soy and pasture for biofuel when compared to farm land.  REGSA focuses on pilot projects such as a micro hydroelectric project at a school location to test different scenarios.  In the evening a group of us went to a club to experience the night life in Brazil!