It’s hard to stay away from Floripa, so I found a way to return for a week on my way out of Brazil. This time I stayed in the south of the island in a small town called Armação, which I hadn’t visited before. My Brazilian friend Laura had recommended it to me as a good place to stay, close to the beach, and chill. I had a lot of work, so I didn’t do much else except go to the gym, eat poke, take photos, and go to the beach. She and her mom made me a really great grilled fish dinner (see photo below). While visiting the beach at Pâtano do Sul (a place I stayed last time I was in Floripa). I stumbled upon the yearly celebration of the African sea goddess, Yemanjá. Yemanjá is a deity from the Yoruba religion that was brought to Brazil by African immigrants and is still practiced today (alongside others). The locals were dancing, singing, and doing capoeira all afternoon and into the night when they lit boats with candles and flowers and sent them out to sea. You can see the statue at the top of this page of Yemanjá. […]
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I often write about my travel queue – that never-ending chain of potential destinations continually elongates. Each that captures my curiosity and I want to visit gets queued, and so do appealing recommendations others give me. New entries are consistently added to the queue, but it takes a while to dequeue them because many destinations precede them. Invitations always elbow themselves towards the front of the queue (higher priority) as long as they don’t interfere with the current yearly strategic objectives (YSOs) — yeah, there’s a loose process and ruleset, which, of course, are superseded by their own irregularities and trump cards (e.g., global pandemics). The queue never gets shorter; it always gets longer, as it is easier to collect potential destinations rather than to visit them. Anyway, that preamble served again to remind you of the proverbial Travel Queue® so I could tell you about how Florianópolis had been on it for a long time owing to its cultural significance to the Brazilians and foreign travelers who had recommended it to me (along with literally dozens of must-visit places in Brazil – what a great country). “Floripa” is actually two things — it’s the city of Florianópolis, in the […]
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