Brazil is mostly known for three things: its sandy beaches, its football players and its Carnival, specially in Rio de Janeiro where you find these three things in a single place. But since we already told you about Rio in a previous post we are now going to introduce you to another interesting city worth a visit: Florianopolis.

Image by Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz

Florianopolis is located in the state of Santa Catarina which has 450 kilometres of Atlantic Ocean coast. Florianopolis occupies an island also named Santa Catarina, and with its countless beaches it attracts thousands of tourists every summer. Facing the ocean waters from different angles, the island has a variety of different types of sandy beaches: quiet lagoon-like ones, small ones, long ones, others with strong waves perfect for surfing, deserted ones, some almost inaccessible, and even a beach protected by a naturism organisation. It is worth mentioning that each beach has its own appeal and public.

Here is a short list of beach names to help you in your web search to find your perfect beach in Florianopolis: Armacao, Barra da Lagoa, Campeche, Canasvieiras, Joaquina, Matadeiro, Mole, Morro das Pedras, Mocambique, Pantano do Sul Praia da Galheta, Praia dos Ingleses, Santinho.

Florianopolis is not only about lying in the beach and sun bathing, the city offers tourists a complete package: services, infrastructure, restaurants, attractions, outdoor activities, entertainment, nightlife, and even a small village sense in the Southern part of the island where most locals reside in contrast with the Northern and Central areas where most of the tourists stay.

Well, if you want to visit Florianopolis you have the option to find your home exchange partner using HomeForHome. Registration and all our services are FREE!

Image by br3akthru /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What comes to your mind as you enjoy your summer home exchange? We would love to know what does the summer inspire in you (even if you haven’t gone on vacations yet)… Let’s see if you empathize with these inspired phrases about the summer days:

- Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language. (Henry James)

- A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. (James Dent)

- A life without love is like a year without summer. (Swedish Proverb)

- Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. (Sam Keen)

- Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. (Russel Baker)

There’s one for every mood, right now I would have to say I’m closest to Sam Keen’s ideas.

And for those that are eager to find their first home exchange deal, the summer may be an excellent time to put some time into home swap searching so let us remind you about what HomeForHome has to offer other than over 16,000 listed properties: Our active community has opened over 3,000 topics to propose exchanges, suggest improvements to the website, ask for help and even share their successful home exchange experiences.

Those looking for an exchange in the next few months, may check out the Exchange Requests topics.

For those already planning your home exchange for Summer 2011, you may even found open proposals in the Exchange: a period lasting for a few months forum.

And if you are willing to let yourself be surprised by some different offers, take a look at the topics in the Study exchanges forum.

All quotes taken from:
http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/summer-quotes.html

Image by ahmet guler /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As we promised yesterday, today we continue with ideas for a great day of outdoor fun with your children.  One great advantage of home exchange is the possibility to be “at home” while you are away on vacations so your family can share a special day in the yard just as you would do in your own house. Some ideas may even be of help to your home exchange partner because you can keep his garden green while you have fun with your kids, as a garden hose or sprinkler may be everything you need to let the fun begin.

Water balloon wars - This is a classic game for a hot summer afternoon, so the next time you go shopping, remember to get some water balloons for the next time you need a fun game to cool down.

Fishing ice-cubes - If you have a kiddie pool or just a bucket, you can dump some ice-cubes into it and compete to be the most effective fisher, catching as many ice-cubes as possible but with your feet!

Ice-cube brigade - In this game, teams compete to be the most effective in carrying ice-cubes from a common bucket to their respective jars. Only hands can be used to transport the ice-cubes and the team that gets the higher final volume of water wins.

Wet potato - As in hot potato, players stand or sit in a circle and pass around a water balloon. If a player fails to keep the water balloon “alive” or if he or she intentionally makes it explode by throwing it too hard, he or she is called out and leaves the circle. The last person standing (still dry!) wins the game.

Sprinkler-jumps - If there is a rotating sprinkler, kids can form a circle within water reach and try to jump each time the stream comes their way. The last one to get wet wins the competition. If you have a single child and you and your spouse  can catch your breath after a few jumps, you can set your child a goal, for example completing 10 jumps before getting hit by the sprinkler.

Wet tag - Just as regular tag, the only difference being you get tagged when you are hit by a water balloon or touched with a wet soft sponge so wet = tagged.

We still have one more game to suggest you, but we will leave it for tomorrow.