We dropped anchor off the port of Porto Belo, Brazil, which has a very small wiki entry. A ten-minute tender ride was needed to get to the dock and our waiting van. There was only one price-included excursion, a cable car ride over and across the bay to a recreation area (more about that later). That didn’t interest me, so I paid extra to travel to Florianopolis and have a Azorean cooking class. “Floripa” is the cool city in this region of Brazil, and the Azoreans were Portuguese immigrants that arrived hundreds of years ago for land grants.
As we walked off the dock the city has a port landmark.
Things got a little strange as we approached the city. Exits from the highway were blocked off by traffic cones manned by same-tshirt-wearing people, who let us in once they could see our van was carrying ten tourists. The cones became metal crowd control barriers as we walked into the main square, finishing as two-meter-tall privacy fences. Our guide told us today is the first day of carnival, and if we were still here in a few hours we could not escape due to the crowds.
We were meeting our chef in the local mercado, but I got distracted. I’ve never seen a restroom with a turnstile right in front of the door. It took tokens to operate, and the cashier is in a box literally one meter away. I am not convinced that the cost of the cashier and “guards” to ensure you don’t jump the turnstile is worth the cost of keeping the bathroom clean.
Our guide explained how all this is reclaimed land. In the past there was an open market on the beach, but construction and a major fire in the area lead to building a proper market building. We met our chef at the seafood section as we were learning how to make swordfish stew.
We then travelled to a local restaurant that was below a new bridge and had a lovely view of the bay.
Our chef made fish stock with grouper the evening before and began today by boiling the large amount of swordfish. On the other burner he started making a desert with chocolate powder and condensed milk. The desert took a lot of stirring for it the thicken.
While waiting for the fish to cool he prepared and cooked the vegetables: onion, garlic, red pepper and skinned/deseeded tomatoes. He then added the rice (to pick up the flavors) and followed with the stock to finish cooking the rice. He broke apart the swordfish to add them to the stew.
The desert was served afterward. It hadn’t cooled all the way, but was still enjoyable.
In the end I don’t feel like I learned all I could have about Floripa, but with carnival fast approaching I understand the need to get out of downtown. But the folks who took the cable car excursion had it worse. The cars were shut down due to high winds and they were trapped. A local-hire “party boat” came to their rescue and taxied them back to the mainland. But due to the wait and carnival traffic their four-hour scheduled excursion took eight-hours!
