Lay of the Land Florianopolis is the capital of Santa Caterina, Brazil’s second southern-most state with the highest levels of income, education and public health and lowest in illiteracy and crime in the country. Famous for its beaches (forty-two in count) and drop-dead gorgeous locals, “Floripa” has 420,000 inhabitants, predominantly of European decent, spread over 168 square miles. Wealthy Brazilians and Europeans began flocking to the beaches of Floripa in the 1970s and soon what began as a ...