Extravelganza411: October 2026

Our last two days in Floripa (which is what the locals call Florianopolis) are being spent on a different side of the island. We've been on the Atlantic Ocean side most of our time here. But our time in our place ended two days before our flight, so we are staying in Florianopolis proper for the last two days.

O! O! It's Alrica! (Sou bem means "I'm doing well.")

Here, we are on the west side of the island, very near the bridges that connect the island to mainland Brazil. The water here isn't called the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, it has names that do not show the Floripans at their most clever. The water is separated into two parts. The water north of the closest point from the island to the mainland is called the North Bay. The water south of the closest point from island to mainland is called the South Bay. Clever right? But wait, what about the water that connects the two, the strait that goes under the bridges? They call that the strait.

View of the North Bay

But uninspired names notwithstanding, it is a beautiful area. We took a good long walk this afternoon and got to take in a lot of the beauty, as well as some interesting curiosities.

When I was at summer camp as a boy, we used to sing about three chartreuse buzzards sitting on a fence. These are not chartreuse. Nor buzzards. Nor on a fence. I don't know why I brought that song up.

The traffic lights here have the big red light or green light. But beside those, there are five smaller lights (again red or green) and they serve as something of a countdown. When the light first turns green there are five small green lights beside the big one. As time goes by, this drops to four, then three, and you get the pattern. This also holds true for the red lights. But not the yellow ones. No smaller side yellows.

Three side green lights, halfway there.

Only two green lights now. Get moving!

I saw some interesting products in the grocery store. Alrica said she had heard of Coke with Coffee before, but it was new to me. As for the Disney Princess lip balm, I just found it amusing that they don't look exactly like the princesses in the movies themselves. (And Mulan isn't a princess, right?)

Espresso Coke? Doesn't sound like an improvement to me.

I have a whole hypothesis on why each princess goes with her particular flavor. Ariel with watermelon because she lives under "water". Mulan with cherry because China and cherry both start with "ch" (though not in Portuguese.) And Cinderella with vanilla, well, I'll let you fill in the rest of the rationale.

Here is the Harry Dog Sculpture. Note, this dog isn't particulary hairy, so I think it really is Harry Dog, like his name was harry. Or someone kept pestering him.