Day 4

Day four and we get a perfect day of weather for our tour of Floripa. We met in the morning for a quick breakfast then took off for the city center, where the oldest part of the city is located and now is home to a large market and the governor’s mansion. Next we found potentially the best view of the day at the highest point on the island. We took some great pictures overlooking the city and then continued our tour with a trip to the beach. Although we are in the heart of winter, the beach is every bit as great as you would expect. The water was warm enough to get in, and the beach is very smooth. There were essentially no shells and the slope is as gradual as I’ve ever seen. We were actually able to see multiple beaches throughout the course of the afternoon, making our way to another portion of the island for lunch. We found a small cove after a really cool walk across the canal connecting the ocean to one of the island’s lakes. Other things we saw were sandboarding in Joaquina on the side of a large dune and a few local shops with Brazilian artwork.

 Potentially the coolest part of the tour of the island was our man Rodrigo’s ability to point out from each stop the other portions of the island that we had visited. After a few days we may have finally put together an idea of how Floripa was laid out.

After a long day of sightseeing we returned to the hotel around dinner time. We had plenty more to do before the end of the evening however. Stopping by the local university downtown, which happened to be the ISA office of Floripa as well, we attended a lecture by REGSA. REGSA gave us an overview of the Brazilian renewable energy portfolio and discussed today’s largest challenges as well as the primary projects being developed. Brasil has a very impressive 50% of its vehicles capable of running on either biodiesel or traditional petroleum. Additionally we discussed how devastating the current drought has been for Brasil and Sao Paulo specifically. The rationing of water is starting way too late and the lack of reservoir depth means blackouts are likely without rain. To account for the growing electricity demand around the country, hydro plants in the Amazon are likely the next undertaking. The high flow, low head plants required for the region will be a new challenge for Brasil, but the potential is too great to pass up.