Brazil - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 220

Introduction
Brazil has an energy like no other nation on earth. Unified through open-armed
hospitality and the combined passions of football, the beach and all that's
beautiful, even the glaring gap between rich and poor somehow fails to distract
Brazilians from a determination to succeed - and party hard along the way.
It's a huge country (larger than the United States excluding Alaska) with all
the diverse scenic and cultural variety you'd expect, from Bahian beaches to
Amazonian jungles. But Brazil is cosmopolitan too. You could as easily find
yourself dancing samba until sunrise as you could eating sashimi amid a crowd
of Japanese Brazilians. Rio and São Paulo are two of the world's great metro-
polises and eleven other cities each have more than a million inhabitants.

3

Brazilians are one of the most ethnically
diverse peoples in the world. In the
south, German and Italian immigration
has left distinctive European features;
São Paulo has the world's largest Japanese
community outside Japan; while centred
principally in Salvador and Rio is the
largest black population outside Africa.
Amerindian influence pervades the entire
country but is especially evident in
Amazonia and the northeastern interior.
Enormous natural resources and rapid
postwar industrialization have made it
one of the world's ten largest economies,
but socio-economic contradictions mean
that this hasn't improved the lives of

many of its citizens: there is a vast (and
growing) middle class, yet all Brazil's
cities are strewn with favelas and slums.
Nowhere, however, do people know
how to enjoy themselves more - most
famously in the orgiastic annual four-day
celebrations of Carnaval , but also
reflected in the lively year-round nightlife
you'll find almost everywhere. Brazil's
vibrant arts, theatre and design scenes are
accompanied by the most relaxed and
tolerant attitude to sexuality , straight and
gay, of anywhere in South America. And
the country's hedonism also manifests
itself in a highly developed beach culture ,
superb music and dancing, and rich
regional cuisines.

WHEN TO VISIT
If Carnaval is the main thing on your mind,
then try to arrive in Rio, Salvador, Recife or
Minas Gerais well before the action - dates
change each year from February to early
March. This is also the main tourist season
and warmest part of the year for most
of Brazil (Jan-March), with higher
accommodation prices and crowded
beaches and hostels. The other big draw
is Reveillon (New Year), when beds in
Rio are especially hard to find. As you go
further south it gets noticeably cooler , so
it's best to visit places like Foz do Iguaçu,
Florianópolis and São Paulo between
November and April. In the Amazon the
less rainy and humid months are between
May and October, while the Northeast has
pretty good weather all year round.

CHRONOLOGY
1500 Off course, en route to India on behalf of Portugal,
Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Bahia.
1502 Amerigo Vespucci enters Guanabara Bay and calls it
Rio de Janeiro.
1549 King João unifies 15 hereditary captaincies under
governor-general Tomé de Sousa, who founds Salvador,
the first capital. Portuguese settlers begin to flow in.
1555 French take possession of Rio and are finally expelled
by the Portuguese in 1567.
1574 Jesuits given control of converted Indians.
1630 Dutch West India Company fleet captures Pernambuco.
1654 Brazilians, without Portuguese aid, defeat and expel
the Dutch.
1695 Bandeirantes discover gold in Minas Gerais.
1759 Jesuits expelled by prime minister Marquis de Pombal,
who grants legal rights to Indians and helps centralize
Brazilian government.