Florianopolis is a fun beach town located in the southern part of Brasil

Nana & Papa Bonner arrived into Brasilia Sunday evening

We gave them a day to recover before hoping onto another plane

Flying south for 2ish hours to explore this beautiful part of the country

Rob and I had been to FLN before but it was during the winter season

It was so fun to be back with the sunshine, and warmth

We stated the trip out right with a flat tire in our rental car

Luckily found directions to a shop that repaired it in 10 minutes and

 we didn't even have to get out of the car while they jacked the van up

$10 dollars later and we were back on the road again

Cooling off with some acai!

Our first little Pousada stop along our 9 day road trip

Girls just hanging at the beach

Nana & Papa experiencing their first coconut water

Some really beautiful sand dunes that we explored one afternoon

We rented sand boards and let our little ones experience "sledding" in January

Snuck out for an early morning hike and was rewarded with some beautiful morning mist and views

    

    

Pousada #2 in a great beach town, Torres

I couldn't find much about this town in guidebooks or the Internet

The beach was more touristy and a few in our group got stung by jellyfish

Besides that the water was great and the waves ideal for our group

and our Pousada was across the street from the beach!!

Fun in FLN

Thanks to some wonderful friends I was able to tag along with Rob on a work assignment in Florianopolis.  FLN is the capital of the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brasil. 

(View from the hotel room)

An example of some of the interesting combinations Brazilians come up with...carrot, honey & orange yogurt

An antique relic

Our first morning Rob and I set out to explore Fortaleza de Sao Jose da Ponta Grossa

This is one of the old fortress build during the first Portuguese settlement in the Island of Florianópolis - formerly known as Desterro.

Unfortunately these were the ocean views we had most of our week

We headed south in the winter...

note to self, next time head north in the winter months!

Original cannons to protect the fortress

Small chapel on the grounds

Found these delicious little bites at a frufru market, they were worth their weight in gold

I joked with Rob that it felt like I was eating Christmas (cinnamon and chocolate cookies)

Add this sign to my love of Brasil cities collection

A giant Russian nesting doll that I found in an open market near our hotel

Most afternoons Rob was in meetings so I found ways to occupy my time

Another cloudy ocean view

"Ribeirao da Ilha is a small fishermen's village on the southwestern side of the island, where many people still make their living from fishing; particularly oysters. It's little more than a small strip of houses and restaurants — mostly colonial in style — situated along the coastline, and is a very charming spot." TripAdvisor
I'm sure it would have been more charming had the shops been open and Rob and I not the only people walking up and down the street.

Afternoon visit to Palacio Cruz e Sousa, the big pink building that was once the Governor's House, and is nowadays home to the Museo Historico Santa Catarina. This historical museum is a great place to learn more about the history of the city and the state of Santa Catarina.  It was also a great place to get a good chuckle as we were instructed to put these slipper looking things on our feet so we wouldn't damage the wood floors. 

A section of the wood floor

Our exploring one morning and we drove past this yard and house that was constructed of our glass bottles.  We didn't have time to tour the house, I'm sure it would have been an interesting tour.
These are a few pictures that I took from the driveway.