December 14, 2010

The weather was again so-so. Dark clouds and a thin drizzle in the air. A bit warmer, but not too much. We decided to go to downtown Florianopolis and see the city.

Going in I took some pictures to show you what it looks like in the inland rural villages of the island.

We are on the island of Santa Catarina, which is in the state of Santa Catarina. The city of Florianopolis is halfway on the mainland, haldway on the island, with bridges connecting the two halves.

The city gave a very different impression than its surroundings

We had brought an iPad, since we have the Lonely Planet guide for Brazil on it in electronic format. It was really only in the car on the way in that I realized the potential of that thing, now that we had managed to get it online. It has a built-in GPS and we could use the web as we walked along.

The iPad is a tourist guide killer! We used it to see the map of the city and seeing exactly where we were using the standard maps application. The detailed map downloaded from the net as we went along and points of interest were well marked.

We used the Lonely Planet guide to look up stuff and surfed the web when we wanted more information about a building, restaurant etc. We had bought the iPads mostly to use as electronic books, but got a lot more for our money.

With all this electronic help I would have liked to write that we efficently homed in on an excellent store where Helene could get gluten- and milk-free food. Alas, we just stumbled on the best store we had seen since the US. South America has not been easy for Helene, it has been difficult to find gluten-free things like bread and cereal bars. In the Amazon one comment was: “Oh, you westerners, you have so many strange food allergies. Here in the Amazon we just eat whatever we have.”

We strolled down to the main square and the pedestrian and shopping area. In the middle of the main square there is an enormous fig tree which is well over 100 years old:

Fig trees normally drop down lianes that form new trunks and roots to support the constantly growing branches of the tree. As you can see the tree is being helped with supporting metal rods, Lianes don´t grow very large root systems on stone mosaics.

The GPS claimed there was a cathedral right here:

Cathedrals tend to be large structures, but we had to go looking for it. The GPS was off by about 100 meters (110 yards) and the cathedral was hidden behind the fig tree. We found it after a while:

The shopping area was decorated for Christmas. We still have a hard time realizing Christmas is coming up soon. It is too warm and there is too much light in the evening.

People were out Christmas shopping. Dauro had told us that flat screen TVs were the hot thing this year:

Brasils economy is booming and our conversations with Dauro and Laura have been a stark contrast to what the Argentineans had to say. It seems president Lula and his government have done a good job in Brazil over the last 8 years. 2/3 of the people who lived in extreme poverty in Brazil 8 years ago are now out of poverty, some 30 million people. The economy is rapidly expanding and will grow with about 8% this year. People want their share of the party now and consumer loans with 12 month pay back time and very high interest is a common way to finance expensive purchases. I´ve heard it all before. Let´s hope Brazil does not turn into another consumer spending bubble.

The strong Brazilian economic performance and the weak Argentinian one has inverted the stream of tourists and shopping expeditions. Because the real is so much stronger than the peso, Brazilians now cross the border to go shopping and also come to Argentina as tourists. When we were here 15 years ago the real and the peso had the same value. Today you get 2.3 pesos for each real!

We found a Santa at the entrance to one of the stores.

Straying a bit off the main pedestrian area we discovered a somewhat original power line setup:

For lunch we found a kilo restaurant, a great Brazilian concept. Basically the restaurant has a large buffet with all sorts of yummy stuff. You grab a plate and fill it with what you want. Then you put your plate on a scale and pay for the weight of what you have taken. The kids can chose what they like best and we don´t have to wait for an hour for the kitchen to finish our food. Peace and harmony:

If you watch very closely you can see the red digits of the electronic scale in the background.

Afterwards we went to the main indoor market in Florianopolis. The building is from the 19th century:

Not only did they have fish at the market:

They also had Norwegian fish hooks:

After the market the rain started and we hurried to Dauro and Laura´s place where we ordered pizza takeaway:

For dessert we had a chocolate and strawberry pizza! What a brilliant idea:

Speaking of chocolate, I guess you have memorized the ingredients of chocolate mousse by now?

OK. Here they are again:

8 eggs

240 grams of chocolate

2 tablespoons of cognac

1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel

1 pinch of salt

To make mousse, the standard recipe tells you to separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Then you beat the whites, with a pinch of salt added, until they are as stiff as can be. Melt the chocolate and mix in the egg yolks, cognac and orange peel. Very carefully mix the whites into the mousse one third of them at a time. Make sure you never stir, just fold them in. Put in the refrigerator. Consumable after about 5 hours.

That´s the official version the French allow to be published. However, there is a bug in there, a booby trap so to speak, secretly put in by the French so they can rule the dessert world. If you try the method they lay out you will get thick chocolate soup.

Can you find the error? It took me 7 years to find out. Soon, I will let you know what it is.

Eirik

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