Parque Balneario Hotel

Viking association of South America

by georeiser

Some years ago when the Scandinavian seamens were in majority, they had their stronghold in Santos. Nobody drank as much beers and made as much noise as they did. They were the toughest men in South-America. At least they wanted all to believe it. The "Bar Erik" in Rua Alexandre Martins was the place.

The "Viking association of South America" is actually a joke. But the association kept all the seamens together. As a teenager on my first backbacker trip to Brazil I thought this was funny, and I was approved as a member (see photo). Even today people remember all the seamen in this street. Some of the seamen are now expats living in Santos with Brazilian wifes and children.

The coastal city Santos

by georeiser

Santos, with its twin city Sao Vicente, is one of the oldest cities in South America. It was founded in 1546. Santos is located in the state of São Paulo, 70 km from the city São Paulo City. Santos is a coastal city with more than 500,000 inhabitants and it is the main port in Brazil. Nearly half of the country's exports pass through Santos, with coffee as the most important product.
Colonial-style buildings dominate the centre of Santos. The beach are famous for its long beach-garden. A four-lane boulevard separates the beach from high residential buildings.

Santos, so lovely sea shore city

by Alless

"IT IS AMAZINGGG !!!!"

Enchanted Beach Garden, makes you feel so relaxed and in peace ...Loved it !

"General Info"

First the city of Santos was known because of its port, Santos is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil, founded in 1543. It is partially located on the island of São Vicente which harbors both the city of Santos and the city of São Vicente, and partially on the mainland. It's the main city in the metropolitan region of Baixada Santista. As of 2003, its population was approximately 437,000. Santos has the biggest seaport in Latin America since at the beginning of century XX ,especially due to exports of coffee; is a significant tourist centre; has large industrial complexes and shipping centres, which handle a large portion of the world's coffee exports; as well as a number of other Brazilian exports including oranges, bananas and cotton. The city also displays the Coffee Museum, where, once, coffee prices were negotiated; the world's longest beach gardens (about 7.3 km); and a football memorial, dedicated to the city's greatest players, amongst which is Pelé.In 1899, Santos was the point of entry for the bubonic plague into Brazil
In the 60s it was the best time of soccer in town, when the city if became famous for hosting Santos Futebol Clube, team of Rei Pelé.
From 2001 the focus of the attentions started to be the green surrounding the entire beach. Brazil discovered that to walk on the biggest beachfront garden of the planet was not a privilege of first world. By incredible that it seems, this pleasure can be enjoyed at 68 km from the capital São Paulo.

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