Situated in the nice location of Sambaqui, Restinga Recanto is a traditional seafood restaurant, noticeable for its decoration with dolls in the front.
They serve traditional dishes found in most seafood restaurants: fish prepared in many ways, shrimp in pumpkin, oysters and other seafood combinations.
The interior is rustic and widely decorated with local culture symbols. Built in a hill top, there is a good balcony with views to the northern bay waters. At night it is especially enchanting, with the lights of the continent shining in the background. Down the hill there is also a restaurant pier for incoming boats and waterside tables.

The table service is informal, without professional training, but the servers are quite friendly and willing to assist you.
I have tried the fish Linguado (common sole), the freshest one according to the waiter, and for accompaniment dishes rice, pirão, saute potatoes and salad. Unfortunately the food wasn’t as good as I expected: the fish missing flavour and regular side dishes. I spent over a R$100 and felt that the meal wasn’t worth it.

In overall Restinga is a nice looking and well located house with regular food, but a bit overpriced in the cost benefit analysis. Good place if you just want to have a drink - perhaps a beer - tasting local seafood appetizers with friends. Particularly at night, the scenery can provide good moments with your partner.

Address: Rodovia Rafael da Rocha Pires, 2759 - Sambaqui
Phone: 48 - 3235 2093
Opening hours: 10h ~ 0 ( Monday closed )
Credit cards: Diners | Mastercard | Visa
Website: www.restingarestaurante.com.br

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Recently a series of properties demolitions have been carried out by Floram, a municipal entity responsible for inspecting and executing environment protection laws in the city. The properties were built illegally in permanent preservation areas.
The most recent one happened in Sambaqui, where a property was built right on the beach and only 5 metres from the sea. The owner was notified, received a fine and will have to recover the damaged area.
That is good news for people who care of the local environment and are worried about the fast and disorganized real state development in the region.

Florianópolis has joined, for the first time, the event Earth hour, by switching off the lights of some main landmarks, such as Hercilio Luz Bridge. In fact, it is the first time that Brazil is participating.
I have also joined by switching off the lights and spending the hour by cycling on the beach with my wife. The night sky was beautiful and we passed the time watching the stars and talking about good things.
Unfortunately I have seen a lot of houses that didn’t turn the lights off. Maybe they didn’t know about it or maybe they simply didn’t care. Not everyone is worried about climate change nor has an idea about the trouble we could get for the future years. The switch off might sound innocent but it is a powerful action if we consider the number of people involved, who care about the climate change. We cannot give up and our individual action will make a difference, even if it is a little one.
However, despite the good initiative, something more effective should be done. I believe the problem lies on our daily habits and if we want to save our planet we must change it in the long term. There is no point to join the Earth hour if we are not recycling the garbage, using less the car, reducing waste, and so on.

Summer season is almost over, and on the last weekend the weather is as good as it could be. Floripa is much quieter now. The crowd is over and if you want to have a more relaxed moment, now is the time. There are more space on the beach sand, road traffic is much better and restaurants can offer more tables and better service.
I took time to relax flying on Brava beach left ridge, the extreme north point of Santa Catarina Island. The wind was blowing light southeast and I had a good soaring. The scenery was beautiful and made me feel really good. Late afternoon it turned to a moderate south and I had to make a tricky landing.

I have few words about “Watchmen, the movie”, cuz I’m a big fan of the graphic novel and I have seen the movie 2 days ago, but it is not my intention to write a review about it.
When I as a kid, I was addicted on super-heroes comics. I read Watchmen and it made a shift on my thinking. At that time we feared the nuclear war and the threat of life extinction was often told by specialists. The novel, beautifully written and illustrated, is a dark picture of those years and one of the messages is clear for me: the mankind is the only specie that has ever lived on earth with power for self destruction. The merit of “Watchmen the movie” is to bring attention and introduce newcomers to the fantastic novel, a masterpiece and critical view of human nature.
Now in 2009 we don’t have the cold war but the nuclear threat is not over as the terrorism is rising the fear again. However we must see that not only nuclear power but also damaging our planet can lead us to self destruction. The tiny layer that covers earth can trap us if we keep on this pace.