Balneario. Brazil’s beach playground

A stunningly modernistic tourist city in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, it is Brazil’s most popular beach destination, frequently nicknamed the “Brazilian Dubai” or a “mini-Dubai” due to its rapid growth, luxurious high-rise skyline, oceanfront towers, upscale vibe, and appeal to affluent visitors and residents. Famous for its dramatic modern architecture with towering skyscrapers it is experiencing a major boom, attracting entrepreneurs, wealthy tourists, and real estate investment and over 6 million tourists a year.

Nancy rode more cable cars, walked the glass bottomed viewing platform (sort of) and we did more beach time and learned why Brazilians clap on the beach . . . If a child goes missing in the crowd, the parents standup and clap. That is the signal for everyone around to look for a strange child in their area and they clap to signal “not here”. The clapping rolls down the beach until the wayward child is found and a big cheer goes up! A brilliantly simple universal system used all over Brazil and we saw/heard in action during our beach visit today .Read more