We will be spending a considerable amount of time in Brazil. That includes being shepherded into a special seating area, compliments of Crystal, to watch the parades at the Sambadrome, which is the main event. 

But before all of that, we made our first Brazillian stop in the port city of Balneário Camboriú. It is in the state of Santa Catarina. Located in southern Brazil, it is mostly a posh resort town whose population swells to over 1 million people in summer from 145,000 in winter. When you first see its skyline and white sandy beaches, you would think you were looking at Miami. 

The city has 2 beaches—one that is “clean” and the other that is not. It contains all types of germs from untreated water the comes from the upstream river.  The locals go to the beach, but avoid the water. They go to the clean beach instead. I should hasten to add that it is not exactly a mystery that the beach has untreated water. But the tourists are apparently not so cautious as the locals and dive right in. 

There is a cable car that runs between the 2 beaches (after going up a steep mountain.) We took a ride in the cable car and then went for a walk in the Atlantic forest. After the walk we went to the clean beach.

Along the way we ran into a friendly merchant who had a cafe / gift shop in the rain forest and who encouraged us with the “thumbs up” sign. 

For some reason other, our (very good) guide refused to call the Atlantic forest a rain forest. I don’t remember why. However, a lecturer on Crystal who is also a professor at Santa Clara University characterized it as a rain forest, so that’s what I’m going with. 

Anyway, our next port of call will be a few days in Santos. We’ll see what that brings.

JFB