 Facts at a Glance
Full country name: Federative Republic of Brazil
Area: 8,511,965 sq km (3,319,666 sq mi)
Population: 158.7 million
Capital city: Brasilia
People: 55% European descent, 38% mulatto, 6% African descent (according to the 1980 census). In reality, these figures are skewed by whiteness being equated with social stature in Brazil.
Language: Portuguese
Religion: 90% Roman Catholic
Government: Federal republic
President: Fernando Henrique Cardoso
 Environment
Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country, occupying almost half of the South American continent and bordering every country in it except for Chile and Ecuador. Much of Brazil is scarcely populated, although some regions with previously low population densities, such as the Amazon, are being rapidly settled, logged and depleted.
Brazil can be divided into four major geographic regions. The long, narrow Atlantic seaboard has coastal ranges between the Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia, but is flatter north of Bahia. The large highlands - called the Planalto Brasileiro or central plateau - which extend over most of Brazil's interior south of the Amazon Basin are punctuated by several small mountain ranges and sliced by several large rivers. Two great depressions - the Paraguay Basin, which is characterized by open forest, low woods and scrubland, and the densely forested Amazon Basin - lie in the southeast. The 6275km (3890mi) long Amazon is the world's largest river, and the Amazon forest contains 30% of the world's remaining forest.
The richness and diversity of Brazil's fauna is astounding, and the country ranks first in the world for numbers of species of primates, amphibians and plants; third for bird species; and fourth for species of butterflies and reptiles. However, many species are under threat because of the continued depletion of rainforests, desertification in the northeast, poaching in the Pantanal region and coastal pollution.
Most of the country has noticeable seasonal variations in rain, temperature and humidity, but only the south of Brazil has extreme seasonal changes. The Brazilian winter is from June to August, with the coldest southern states receiving average winter temperatures of between 13 and 18°C (55 and 64°F). In summer (December to February), Rio is hot and humid, with temperatures in the high 30°Cs (80°Fs); the rest of the year, temperatures hover around 25°C (77°F). The northeast coast gets as hot as Rio but is less humid and stifling. In general, the highlands are less hot and humid, and are prone to summer rainfalls. The Amazon basin is the rainiest part of Brazil, and while it is humid, temperatures average a reasonable 27°C (80°F).
 History
The Brazilian Indians never developed a centralized civilization like the Inca or Maya, and left very little evidence for archaeologists to study: some pottery, shell mounds and skeletons. The Indian population was quite diverse and there were an estimated two to five million living in the territory that is now Brazil when the Portuguese first arrived. Today there are fewer than 200,000, most of them in the hidden jungles of the Brazilian interior.
In 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral set sail from Lisbon, ostensibly for India, and arrived on the Brazilian coast by `accident'. Some historians say it was his intended destination all along, and it's true that his `discovery' was reported to the king in such matter-of-fact terms that it seems that the existence of Brazil was already well-known to mariners. In 1531, King João III of Portugal sent the first settlers to Brazil and, in 1534, fearing the ambitions of other European countries, he divided the coast into 12 hereditary captaincies, which were given to friends of the Crown. The colonists soon discovered that the land and climate were ideal for growing sugar cane, solving the prodigous labor requirements by enslaving the Indian population. The capture and sale of slaves almost became Brazil's most lucrative trade, and was dominated by the bandeirantes, men from São Paulo born of Indian mothers and Portuguese fathers. They hunted the Indians into the interior, and by the mid-1600s had reached the peaks of the Peruvian Andes. Their exploits, more than any treaty, secured the huge interior of South America for Portuguese Brazil.
During the 17th century, African slaves replaced Indians on the plantations. They were less vulnerable to European diseases but they strongly resisted slavery. Quilombos, communities of runaway slaves, were common throughout the colonial era. They ranged from mocambos, small groups hidden in the forests, to the great republic of Palmares which survived for much of the 17th century. In the 1690s, gold was discovered in Minas Gerais and the rush was on. Brazilians and Portuguese flooded into the territory and countless slaves were brought from Africa to dig and die in the mines.
In 1807, Napoleon's army marched on Lisbon. Two days before the invasion, the Portuguese Prince Regent set sail for Brazil. On arrival, he made Rio de Janeiro the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve; Brazil became the only New World colony to serve as the seat of a European monarch. In 1822 the Prince Regent's son, who had been left behind to rule the colony when his father returned to Portugal, pulled out his sword and yelled the battle cry 'Independência ou morte!' (independence or death). Portugal was too weak to fight its favorite son, so Brazil became an independent empire without spilling a drop of blood.
During the 19th century, coffee replaced sugar as Brazil's major export. At first the coffee plantations used slave labor, but with the abolition of slavery in 1888, thousands of European immigrants, mostly Italians, poured in to work on the coffee estates, called fazendas. In 1889, a military coup, supported by the coffee aristocracy, toppled the Brazilian Empire, and for the next 40 years, Brazil was governed by a series of military and civilian presidents supervised, in effect, by the armed forces.
In 1929, the global economic crisis weakened the coffee planters' hold on the government and an opposition Liberal Alliance was formed with the support of nationalist military officers. When the Alliance lost elections in 1930, the military seized power on their behalf and installed the Liberal leader, Getúlio Vargas, as president. Vargas, whose regime was inspired by Mussolini's and Salazar's fascist states, dominated the political scene for the next 30 years, until he was forced out of office in 1954. His replacement, Juscelino Kubitschek, was the first of Brazil's big spenders; he built Brasília, the new capital, which was supposed to catalyze the development of the interior. By the early 1960s, the economy was battered by inflation, partly because of the expense of building the new capital, and fears of encroaching communism were fueled by Castro's victory in Cuba. Again, Brazil's fragile democracy was squashed by a military coup.
In the mid-80s, Brazil's economic miracle, supported largely by loans from international banks, petered out and the military handed power back to a civilian government. In November 1989, Brazilians had their first opportunity to elect a president by popular vote in almost 30 years, and elected Fernando Collor de Mello, ex-karate champion, over the socialist Luiz da Silva, by a narrow but secure majority. Collor gained office promising to fight corruption and reduce inflation, but by the end of 1992, the man who had once reminded George Bush of Indiana Jones had been removed from office and was being indicted on charges of corruption - accused of leading a gang which used extortion and bribery to suck more than US$1 billion from the economy.
Vice President Itamar Franco became president in December 1992 on Collor's resignation, and in November 1994, Fernando Cardoso was elected president. Cardoso has reduced the inflation rate significantly since taking office, but this has been offset by the loss of two million jobs between 1989-96 and ongoing problems with agrarian reform - now being treated as a national security issue. According to a 1996 United Nations report, Brazil has the world's most unequal distribution of wealth. Still, that didn't stop Cardoso from comfortably winning a second term in 1998.
 Economic Profile
GDP: US$921 billion
GDP per head: US$5,675
Inflation: 16%
Major industries: Metal ores & products, transport equipment, soya beans, coffee, sugar
Major trading partners: EU, Central and South America, Asia, USA
 Culture
Brazilian culture has been shaped not only by the Portuguese, who gave the country its religion and language, but also by the country's native Indians, the considerable African population, and other settlers from Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Brazilian music has always been characterized by great diversity and, shaped by musical influences from three continents and it is still developing new and original forms. The samba, which reached the height of popularity during the 1930s, is a mixture of Spanish bolero with the cadences and rhythms of African music. Its most famous exponent was probably Carmen Miranda, known for her fiery temperament and fruity headdresses. The more subdued bossa nova, popular in the 1950s and characterized by performers such as João Gilberto and songs such as 'The Girl from Ipanema', was influenced by North American jazz. Tropicalismo is a mix of musical influences that arrived in Brazil in the 1960s, including Italian ballads. More recently, the lambada, influenced by Caribbean rhythms, has become internationally popular.
Among Brazil's writers of fiction, Machado de Assis stands out with his terse, ironic style. The son of a freed slave, Assis worked as a typesetter and journalist in 19th-century Rio. Brazil's most famous 20th-century writer is the regionalist Jorge Amado, whose tales are colorful romances of Bahia's people and places.
Brazil is officially a Catholic country, but in practice the country's religious life incorporates Indian animism, African cults, Afro-Catholic syncretism and Kardecism, a spiritualist religion embracing Eastern mysticism, which is gaining popularity with Brazilian Whites.
Portuguese, infused with many words from Indian and African languages, is spoken by all Brazilians. Accents, dialects and slang vary regionally.
The staples of the Brazilian diet are white rice, black beans and manioc flour, usually combined with steak, chicken or fish. Brazilian specialties include moqueca, a seafood stew flavored with dendê oil and coconut milk; caruru, okra and other vegetables mixed with shrimp, onions and peppers; and feijoada, a bean and meat stew. On many street corners in Bahia, women wearing flowing white dresses sell acarajé, beans, mashed in salt and onions and then fried in dendê oil. The fried balls are filled with seafood, manioc paste, dried shrimp, pepper and tomato sauce.
 Events
Brazil's most famous festival is Carnaval, beginning at midnight on the Friday before Ash Wednesday and lasting for five days. It is celebrated all over Brazil and there are more authentic versions than the glitzy tourist drawcard held in Rio, but Rio's is a fantastic spectacle nonetheless. In the sambódromo, a tiered street designed for samba parades, the Brazilians harness sweat, noise and mayhem as the 16 top samba schoools each have their hour of glory.
 Carnaval revelry (8K)
 Facts for the Traveler
Visas: A 90-day visa (five years for US citizens) obtained in advance is required by most visitors to Brazil
Health risks: Chagas' disease, dengue fever, malaria, meningitis, rabies, yellow fever
Time: GMT/UTC minus 3 hours in the east, northeast, south and southeast; GMT/UTC minus 4 hours in the west; and GMT/UTC minus 5 hours in the far west
Electricity: Unstandardized; 110 or 120V, 60 Hz in Rio and São Paulo
Weights & measures: Metric (see the conversion table.)
Currency: real
Relative costs:
- Budget room: US$10-20
- Moderate hotel: US$20-70
- Top-end hotel: US$70 and upwards
- Budget meal: US$8-10
- Moderate restaurant meal: US$10-20
- Top-end restaurant meal: US$20 and upwards
As the economic situation is Brazil has stabilized, travel has become more expensive for foreigners. If you're traveling on buses every couple of days, staying in hotels for US$20 a night, and eating in restaurants and/or drinking in bars every night, US$60 is a rough estimate of what you would need. If you plan to lie on a beach for a month, eating rice and beans every day, US$30 would be enough. You should bear in mind that prices for accommodation increase around 30% from December to February.
Credit cards are now accepted all over Brazil. Visa is the best card to carry for cash advances. Changing cash and travelers' checks is simple - there are cambios in all but the tiniest towns. It's worth having enough cash to tide you over the weekend, when finding a change bureau, even in big cities, can be difficult. When buying cash, ask for lots of small bills as change is often unavailable for small transactions.
Most services get tipped a mandatory 10%, often included in the bill. If a waiter is friendly and helpful, you may like to give more. Because of the massive amount of unemployment in Brazil, services that may seem superfluous are customarily tipped. Parking assistants are the most notable as they receive no wages, but petrol-station attendants, shoe shiners and barbers are also frequently tipped. Taxi drivers are an exception: most people round the price up, but a tip is not expected.
Bargaining for hotel rooms should become second nature - always ask for a better price. You should also haggle in markets and unmetered taxis.
Most of Brazil can be visited comfortably throughout the year - it's only the south, which can be unbearably sticky in summer and non-stop rainy in winter, that has extreme seasonal changes. With many Brazilians on summer vacation from December to February, travel can be difficult and expensive, while from Rio to the south the humidity can be oppressive.
Summer is also the most festive time of year, as Brazilians escape their apartments and take to the beaches and streets. School holidays begin in mid-December and go through to Carnaval, usually in late February.
 Attractions
Rio de Janeiro
Jammed into the world's most beautiful setting - between ocean and escarpment - are 7 million Cariocas, as Rio's inhabitants are called. The Cariocas pursue pleasure like no other people: beaches and the body beautiful; samba and beer; football and the local firewater, cachaça.
Rio has its problems, and they are enormous: a third of the people live in the favelas (shanty towns) that blanket many of the hillsides; the poor have no schools, no doctors, no jobs; drug abuse and violence are endemic; police corruption and brutality are commonplace. Rio's reputation as a violent city has caused a sharp reduction in tourism in the last several years, and there is even a special police unit which patrols areas frequented by gringos in an effort to keep them safe - recent reports suggest they have been pretty successful.
Beach policeman (7K)
Rio is divided into a zona norte (northern zone) and a zona sul (southern zone) by the Serra da Carioca, steep mountains that are part of the Parque Nacional da Tijuca. The view from the top of Corcovado, the mountain peak with the statue of Christ the Redeemer at its summit, offers the best way to become geographically familiar with the city. Favelas crowd against the hillsides on both sides of town.
The beach, a ritual and a way of life for the Cariocas, is Rio's common denominator. Copacabana is probably the world's most famous beach, and runs for 4.5km (3mi) in front of one of the most densely populated residential areas on the planet. From the scalloped beach you can see the granite slabs that surround the entrance to the bay. Ipanema is Rio's richest and most chic beach. Other beaches within and near the city include Pepino, Praia Barra da Tijuca, Flamengo and Aproador.
Hanging out at the beach (16K)
Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf) is God's gift to the picture-postcard industry. Two cable cars climb 1300m (4264ft) above Rio and the Baía de Guanabara and, from the top, Rio looks the most beautiful city in the world. The 120 sq km (47 sq mi) Parque Nacional de Tijuca, 15 minutes from the concrete jungle of Copacobana, is all that's left of the tropical jungle that once surrounded Rio. The forest is an exuberant green, with beautiful trees and waterfalls.
Rio's famous glitzy Carnaval is a fantastic spectacle, but there are more authentic celebrations held elsewhere in Brazil. In many ways, Carnaval can be the worst time to be in Rio. Everyone gets a bit unglued at this time of year: taxi fares quadruple, accommodation triples and masses of visitors descend on the city to get drunk, get high and exchange exotic diseases.
Carnaval in Rio (10K)
The best areas for budget hotels are Glória, Catete and Flamengo. Botafogo has the best budget nightlife; Cinelândia and Lapa have a lot of samba and are the heart of gay Rio; Leblon and Ipanema have upmarket, trendy clubs.
Brasília may be a World Heritage Site, but unless you're architecture student, it's not going to be of much interest. Though it probably looked good on paper and still looks good in photos, in the flesh it's another story. Designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, urban planner Lucio Costa and landscape architect Burle Marx, the city was built in an incredible three years (1957-60) by millions of dirt-poor peasants working around the clock. Unfortunately, the world's most ambitious planned city was designed for automobiles and air conditioners, not people. Distances are enormous and hardly anyone walks; the sun blazes and there are few trees for shelter. Bureaucrats and politicians are lured to Brasília by 100% salary hikes and big apartments, but as soon as the weekend comes they jet to Rio or São Paulo - anywhere less sterile. The poor, who work in the construction and service industries, pass their nights in favelas up to 30km (19mi) outside the city, called 'anti-Brasílias'.
The biggest city in South America is a city of immigrants and ethnic neighborhoods. A whopping 17 million people live in this plateau megalopolis, many of them descendants of Italian and Japanese migrants. Strong industrial development and cultural diversity have provided São Paulo with the largest, most cultured and educated middle class in Brazil. These Paulistanos are lively, well-informed and, though they complain about the traffic, street violence and pollution, wouldn't dream of living anywhere else. São Paulo can be an intimidating place, but if you like big cities, it offers the excitement and nightlife of one of the world's most dynamic. Attractions include the baroque Teatro Municipal, Niemeyer's Edifício Copan, and the 16th-century Patío do Colégio.
São Paulo (15K)
The Amazon is a gigantic system of rivers and forests, covering half of Brazil and extending into neighboring countries. The stretch of river known as Rio Amazonas runs between the cities of Manaus and Belém, though the various rivers which join to form it provide a navigable route for ocean-going vessels to the other side of the South American continent.
The forest still keeps many of its secrets: to this day major tributaries of the Amazon are unexplored. Of the estimated 15,000 species of Amazon creatures, thousands of birds and fish and hundreds of mammals have not been classified. A cursory sampling of known animal species found in the forest - some common, some rare, some virtually extinct - includes jaguar, tapir, peccary, spider monkey, sloth, armadillo, caiman, alligator, river dolphin, boa constrictor and anaconda. Forest birds include toucans, parrots, macaws, hummingbirds and hawks; insect life is well represented with over 1800 species of butterflies and more than 200 species of mosquitoes; and fish such as piranha, tucunaré, piraracu, pintado and electric eel abound in such an amazing diversity of fish species that biologists are unable to identify 30% of the catch found in Belém's markets.
Hyacinth Macaw (5K)
The most common jumping-off point for excursions into the Amazon is Manaus, which lies beside the Rio Negro, 10km (6mi) upstream from the confluence of the Solimões and Negro rivers, which join to form the Amazon. Although Manaus continues to be vaunted in countless glossy travel brochures as an Amazon wonderland, the city itself has few attractions and is dirty, ugly and increasingly crime-ridden. The city's most potent symbol is the Teatro Amazonas, the famous opera house designed by Domenico de Angelis in Italian Renaissance style at the height of the rubber boom, in 1896.
Teatro Amazonas, Manaus (20K)
Day trips and boat tours up the Amazon provide a close-up experience of the jungle flora and abundant bird life, and a chance to see what life is like for the caboclos (inhabitants of the Amazonian river towns) in the vicinity of Manaus, but don't expect to meet remote Indian tribes or dozens of free-ranging beasts, because in both cases contact has been synonymous with destruction, and both have sensibly fled from accessible areas.
The Amazon may have all the fame and glory, but the Pantanal is a far better place to see wildlife. This vast area of wetlands, about half the size of France, lies in the far west of Brazil and extends into the border regions of Bolivia and Paraguay. Birds are the most frequently seen wildlife, but the Pantanal is also a sanctuary for giant river otters, anacondas, iguanas, jaguars, cougars, crocodiles, deer and anteaters. The area has few people and no towns, and access is via the Transpantaneira road which ends at the one-hotel hamlet of Porto Jofre. Boat tours are available from the port city of Rio Paraguai on the Bolivian border, but be cautious as the town has a reputation for gun-running, drug traffic and poaching.
All travelers should take precautions against tapeworm (14K)
Bahia is Brazil's most Africanized state. Its capital, Salvador da Bahia (often abbreviated to Bahia or Salvador), is a fascinating city loaded with historic buildings. If beaches are what you want, the only difficulty is making a choice. Founded in 1549, Salvador was Brazil's most important city for 300 years, and the Portuguese Empire's second city, after Lisbon. As the center of the sugar trade, it was famous for gold-filled churches and beautiful mansions, and for its many wild festivals and general sensuality and decadence. Carnaval in Salvador is justly famous and attracts hordes of tourists. Other highlights include 34 colonial churches; the Museu Afro-Brasileira, which is dedicated to Black culture; and the Elevador Lacerda, an Art Deco structure with clanking electric elevators which truck up and down a set of 85m (279ft) cement shafts in less than 15 seconds and carry over 50,000 passengers daily between the port and the hilly historic section of the city.
Pelourinho, Salvador da Bahia (20K)
The Rio Iguaçu arises in the coastal mountains of Paraná and Santa Catarina, the Serra do Mar, and snakes west for 600km (372mi) before it widens majestically and sweeps around a magnificent jungle stage, plunging and crashing in tiered falls at the border with Argentina and Paraguay. The falls are over 3km (2mi) wide and 80m (262ft) high. The best time of year to see them is from August to November, when there is least risk of flood waters hindering the approach to the catwalks.
Iguaçu Falls (15K)
 Off the Beaten Track
Jericoacoara
Jericoacoara is the latest remote-and-primitive 'in' beach to become popular among backpackers and hipper Brazilians. Situated on the Ceará coast, northwest of Fortaleza, it's a rough little fishing village where dozens of palms drowning in sand dunes face jangadas (sailboats) stuck on a broad grey beach. It's very hard to get there so you might as well stay a while. Pigs, goats, sheep, horses, burros and dogs roam the sandy streets at will. You can boogie at the forró held every evening - just follow the music. You can also climb the sand dunes, hitch a ride on a jangada, or walk to Pedra Furada, a rock 3km (2mi) east along the beach. You can also hire horses and gallop 18km (11mi) westward along the beach to the still smaller town of Mangue Seco.
Olinda
Brazil's former capital, Olinda is one of the best preserved colonial cities in Brazil. With an enviable elevated location overlooking Recife and the Atlantic, the historical district is concentrated on its winding upper streets. However, this is no still life. Olinda is very much a living city, with a cultural scene which is alive and kicking, and its beautiful enclave of preserved colonial buildings is populated by artists, students and bohemians. Churches, museums, art galleries and convents vie with outdoor restaurants and craft markets, attracting locals and tourists alike. Carnaval in Olinda is a mega affair, the historic setting and party-animal residents providing an intimacy and sense of security that other Carnavals lack.
Parque Nacional da Serra da Chapada dos Veadeiros
This scenic national park is in the highest area of the country's Central West, just over 200km (124mi) north of Brasília, the nation's capital. Its high waterfalls, natural swimming pools and oasis-like stands of wine-palms have caused it to become a popular destination for ecotourists. Animal life includes maned wolves, banded anteaters, giant armadillos, capybaras, tapirs, rheas, toucans and vultures. The park has a camping ground, and there is basic accommodation nearby.
 Activities
There are great spots for hang-gliding in Rio, especially around Pedra Bonita, near Pepino beach. Surfing is popular all along the coast. Waves are especially good in the southern state of Santa Caterina, but there is also plenty of surf close to Rio. Sailing is big in Búzios and off the larger resorts along the coast. Inland, the Rio Araguaia in Goiás and Tocantins is known as a fishing paradise. There are excellent opportunities for rock climbing in and near Rio and in the national and state parks, and hiking is great along the coast. Futebol (soccer) is the national obsession and if you can play the game or talk about it meaningfully, you'll become an instant hit.
Soccer fans (15K)
 Getting There & Away
There are frequent flights to Rio from all major cities in South America. Other gateway airports in Brazil include Recife, popular with German package tourists, and Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, which is halfway between Rio and Miami. Varig, Brazil's national airline, flies to many major cities in the world. Brazil has land borders with every other country in South America, with the exceptions of Ecuador and Chile, so while some travelers may bus in from Uruguay in the south, others arrive via the trem da morte (death train) from Bolivia. By river, many travelers take a slow boat down the Amazon from Iquitos in Peru or into the Pantanal via the Rio Paraguay from Asunçion.
 Getting Around
Flights within Brazil are not cheap, but with the huge distances involved, the occasional splurge may be an absolute necessity. Except in the Amazon basin, buses are the primary form of long-distance transportation for the vast majority of Brazilians, and services are generally excellent and cheap. All major cities are linked by frequent buses; for example, there's at least one every 15 minutes between Rio and São Paulo during peak hours. There are very few railway passenger services in Brazil, despite the fact that there is over 30,000km (18,600mi) of track; however, enthusiasts should not despair as there are still some wonderful railway journeys in Brazil, including some by steam train. Although river travel in Brazil has decreased due to the construction of a comprehensive road network, it is still possible to travel by boat between some of the cities of the Rio São Francisco.
 Recommended Reading
- Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians by John Hemming follows the colonists and Indians from 1500 to 1760, when the great majority of Indians were either pacified or eliminated.
- The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization by Gilberto Freyre is the most famous book on Brazil's colonial past.
- Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming is a hilarious account of the young journalist's expedition into Mato Grosso in search of the disappeared Colonel Fawcett.
- Wizard of the Upper Amazon - The Story of Manuel Córdova-Rios by F Bruce Lamb is an interesting look at yagé, the hallucinogenic drug used by certain tribes of the upper Amazon.
- The Rainforest Book by Scott Lewis is packed with examples which link consumer behavior with rainforest development; listings of organizations to contact; and advice on individual involvement.
- Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by Mark Plotkin touches on history, anthropology and environmental issues as it recounts the search for medicinal plants in the forests of Brazil and Suriname.
- Epitaph of a Small Winner and Philosopher or Dog by Machado de Assis are darkly humorous and deeply cynical stories from Brazil's best novelist.
- Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado are delightful tales set in the exotic tropical north of Brazil.
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