In Florianopolis I lived in a very safe, low-rise apartment neighbourhood near the center of the island. It was right across the street from a park where people can exercise and children can play, and a five minute walk from a grocery store. One of the best features of the location, and I guess the Floripa transportation system, is that the bus stops right in front of its door. In Florianopolis, the buses are run by three private companies to service the whole island. The buses are either blue, indicating regular service, or yellow, indicating executive service. Executive service means that there is air conditioning and more seat room. The prices vary for each bus so you need to pay attention as the bus approaches to the fare amount.
One of my days I spent the afternoon walking around the historical downtown core of Florianopolis. The 15 of November Square is surrounded by historical Portuguese buildings, at its center is the largest Figuero tree in Brazil (so large that its branches are being held up by metal supports), at the head is the municipal cathedral and to the left is the Mercado Central.
The Mercado Central, though not as elaborate as the one in Belo Horizonte, did feature the local seafood very well. For example you can bu 1 kg of shrimp for $6!
My favourite part of the day though was visiting an exhibit on medieval torture devices. To preface my review and description of the exhibit - I'm sorry I forgot my camera - I would like to share that I have always had a strong fascination with witchcraft and its cultural histories around the world. So much so that when I was a child I was convinced that there were spell books in all libraries that the librarians had forgotten about and that if I looked for them hard enough I would find them and be able to study their magic. I never did find the books, but my fascination never did di, which is why I did a project on medieval torture devices used to help discover women who were witches in highschool.
Well Santa Catarina is known as the Island of Magic and has a history of witches. The medieval torture devices exhibit was being put on to promote Italian-Brazilian international relations and most of the pieces were from Europe. There was only 30 pieces in the exhibit and they were all original. Though this may seem underwhelming to pay money to see so few pieces, when you consider that you are seeing, touching and imagening devices that were used to kill and torture people, trust me that you are sufficiently depressed no matter how interesting you find the artifacts after seeing them all.
It is amazing how cruel humans have and can be. Also, how creative humans are whether it is for good or for bad. The exhibit had classic devices we have all seen in movies such as stretching table, a saw to cut people in half vertically while being hung upside down, a male and female chastity belt (male for slaves in artistocrat mansions not to fraternize with the women and female for wives of men who are travelling) and more unusual devices such as a padlock for bad musicians which is a clarinet shaped device which is locked around the neck and with the musicians hands locked in place as if he were playing as punishment for his poor performance.
I would recommend visiting Florianopolis on a Brazilian vacation for sure.
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