Rough Guides - The Rough Guide to Brazil

iStock

IGUAU FALLS

Contents

Introduction to

Brazil

The mighty rivers of the Amazon, the pulsing Carnaval rhythms, bone-white beaches and footballing flair: almost everyone on the planet knows something about Brazil. Yet South Americas biggest country still holds plenty of surprises. Though Rio de Janeiro draws by far the most tourists indeed, for many visitors Rio is Brazil this is a land of stunningly diverse and staggeringly beautiful landscapes, with a kaleidoscope of culture to match. In one, vast nation this up-and-coming superpower encompasses the dry, mythic landscapes of the northeastern serto; the wildlife-rich plains of the Pantanal; the gorgeous colonial hill towns of Minas Gerais; churning So Paulos urban chic; the watery labyrinth of Amazonia; and seemingly endless, mesmerizing tropical beaches all along the South Atlantic coast.

The sheer size of the country prevents any sort of overarching statement about the typical Brazilian experience, just as the diversity of its people undercuts any notion of the typical Brazilian. Indeed, Brazil often seems isolated in its own vastness, a world apart with apparently little connection to or interest in its seven Spanish-speaking neighbours. Cut off by language (Portuguese), culture and especially race, Brazil is proud of its diversity, from its native indigenous population and early Portuguese conquerors, to later waves of Italians, Germans, Spanish, Ukrainians, Polish, Arabs and Japanese migrants. In stark contrast to its neighbours it also has a relatively large African population a legacy of slavery, which was legal here right up until 1888. As a result, Brazil is home to the most varied and dynamic artistic movements on the continent, with Carnaval the biggest party season anywhere and a bewildering range of musical styles, festivals and celebrations in evidence all year round.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that most Brazilians now live in cities (seventeen of them contain over one million people), with seventy percent of the population crammed along the coastal strip; So Paulo alone boasts over twelve million inhabitants. Though vast regions of Brazil are empty or sparsely populated farmland, agriculture only represents a fraction of total GDP today and the nation is primarily an urban, developed society. As a result, though it is still possible to travel on a budget here, prices are much higher than in any other South American country.

Yet even on the shortest visit, Brazils problems are glaringly obvious. The economy went through a devastating recession between 2014 and 2017, and the divide between rich and poor remains a contentious issue, with a mind-bending disparity of wealth the grinding poverty of the favela (the generic name for slums present in every city), ongoing drug wars and high crime rates can be depressing.

While many Brazilians were proud of the nations role (if not their teams performance) as football World Cup (2014) and Olympic (2016) host, billions were spent on new stadiums while millions of Brazilians still struggle to pay rent and find enough to eat each day the exposure of a massive government bribery scandal helped spark the latest economic downturn. Its a challenging but fascinating time for Brazil, and a privilege to witness whats happening first hand. There are few places where strangers can feel so confident of a warm welcome and a really good party.

iStock

BOYS PLAYING FOOTBALL, FAVELA MORRO DA MINEIRA IN RIO DE JANEIRO

Where to go

The most heavily populated part of Brazil is the Southeast, where the three largest cities So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte form a triangle around which the economy pivots. All are worth visiting, but Rio, which really is as beautiful as it seems in pictures, is an essential stop, while the ravishing colonial relic of Paraty lies between here and booming So Paulo. North of here, the city of Belo Horizonte sits at the heart of Minas Gerais, where the old Portuguese towns of Ouro Preto, Tiradentes and Diamantina drip with colonial history. The South, encompassing the states of Paran, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, boasts the spectacular Iguau Falls on the border with Argentina one of the great natural wonders of South America. From Curitiba the scenic Serra Verde Express snakes down to the coast, where you can chill out on Ilha do Mel or beach-hop around Florianpolis.

Central Brazil is dominated by an enormous plateau of savannah and rock escarpments, the Planalto Central. In the middle stands Braslia, the countrys space-age capital, built from scratch in the late 1950s. The city is the gateway to Brazils interior, comprising Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, and the vast Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world and the richest wildlife reserve anywhere in the Americas. To the north and west Mato Grosso shades into the Amazon, the worlds largest river basin and a mosaic of jungle, rivers and marshland that also contains two major cities Belm, at the mouth of the Amazon itself, and Manaus, some 1600km upstream.

The other major sub-region of Brazil is the Northeast (including Bahia), the first part of Brazil to be settled by the Portuguese and the place where colonial remnants are thicker on the ground than anywhere else in the country notably in the atmospheric Afro-Brazilian cities of Salvador and So Lus and the gorgeous town of Olinda. Its a region of dramatic contrasts: a lush tropical coastline quickly gives way to the serto, a semi-arid interior sprinkled with mysterious monoliths, prehistoric remnants and wild, rarely visited national parks. Most travellers stick to the beaches: party centrals Morro de So Paulo and Porto de Galinhas, sleepy Maragogi, beach-buggy paradise Natal, backpacker haven Praia da Pipa, and the dunes and kite-surfing enclaves of Canoa Quebrada and Jericoacoara. Finally, if you can afford it, the pricey but idyllic offshore island chain of Fernando de Noronha is one of the worlds great natural hideaways.

FACT FILE

At around 210 million, Brazil has the fifth largest population in the world. Its also the fifth largest country.

Brazil is estimated to be around 65 percent Catholic; Protestant religions account for around 22 percent (mostly Evangelical and Pentecostal).

The brazil nut comes from a tree of the same name, and really does grow in the jungles of Brazil, though Bolivia exports more of them. In Brazil the nuts are called castanhas-do-par.

Rio-born author Paulo Coelho has sold around 150 million books worldwide (