Brazil's surf capital and oyster island where sequência de camarão arrives on a banana leaf and the Açorean fishing villages still sell their catch at dawn
Florianópolis — Floripa to anyone who has spent time there — is built on the Ilha de Santa Catarina, an island connected to the mainland by two bridges and ringed by 42 beaches that range from flat, calm southern shores to Atlantic surf breaks that draw professional surfers from across the world. The food culture here is unusually specific: the island was settled by Açorean Portuguese colonists in the 18th century, and their fishing and oyster-farming traditions produce the freshest shellfish in Brazil — Ribeirão da Ilha, the Açorean village at the island's south end, is lined with restaurant…
Santa Catarina island was settled by Açorean and Madeiran colonists from 1748, sponsored by the Portuguese Crown as part of a strategic plan to populate southern Brazil against Spanish encroachment. The Açorean settlers brought their fishing techniques, cattle-rearing practices, and a distinct Portuguese-island dialect that influenced the regional Santa Catarina accent still audible today. The traditional renda de bilro (bobbin lace) craft brought from the Azores is still practiced in the island's fishing villages and is recognised as a Brazilian intangible cultural heritage.