Day 5

The next day was our city tour of Florianópolis. We went to all sections of the city. Starting in downtown where our hotel was, we learned about the history of this port city and got come sugar cane juice which was very sweet. We then went up the mountain to get an aerial view of the island as well as the mainland portion. It was a beautiful day and very picturesque. After descending the mountain we went to Joaquina Beach where people were sand boarding on the sand dunes. They say that sand boarding was invented there! Usually the beach is full of surfers but since it was winter, it was a bit too cold to get in the water. We drove to another beach with a restaurant and had a large fish and meat lunch. Even though it was cold, a bunch of us went into the water (a big mistake!) then we explored the area a bit and found a secluded beach. After this we went to Lagoa (the large lake) to see the pretty views. Then we went to UNISUL to hear Professor Baltazar Guerra talk about renewable energy in Brazil and his group's REGSA project. He gave us some interesting statistics about Brazil's energy use, especially compared to the rest of the world. The statistics of Brazil versus the United States made me feel bad that I live in such an environmentally irresponsible society.