Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
seems in pictures, is an essential stop,
while the ravishing colonial relic of
Paraty
lies between here and booming
São 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.
he
South
, encompassing the states of
Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande
do Sul, boasts the spectacular
Iguaçu 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
Florianópolis
.
Central Brazil is dominated by an
enormous plateau of savannah and rock
escarpments, the
Planalto Central
. In the
middle stands
Brasília
, the country's
space-age capital, built from scratch in the
late 1950s. The city is the gateway to Brazil's
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 world's largest river
basin and a mosaic of jungle, rivers and marshland that also contains two major cities -
Belém
, 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 remains are thicker
on the ground than anywhere else in the country - notably in the atmospheric Afro-
Brazilian cities of
Salvador
and
São Luís
and the gorgeous town of
Olinda
. It's a region of
dramatic contrasts: a lush tropical coastline quickly gives way to the
sertão
, 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 São
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 world's great natural hideaways.
FACT FILE
•
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-pará
. Brazilians actually prefer
the cashew nut, which is native to the
country and called simply
caju
.
•
Rio-born author Paulo Coelho has sold
around 150 million topics worldwide (
The
Alchemist
accounts for around 65 million),
making him by far the bestselling writer in
Portuguese of all time.
•
“Garota de Ipanema” (or “Girl from
Ipanema”) was written in 1962 by Antônio
Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and
allegedly inspired by the very real Helô
Pinheiro (19 at the time), later a Brazilian
model and Playboy “Playmate”.
•
Born in Minas Gerais in 1940, Edson
Arantes do Nascimento, better known as
Pelé, is generally regarded as the greatest
football player of all time. He is the only
player to have been in World Cup-winning
teams three times and is the all-time
leading goal scorer for Brazil (77). Brazil has
won the World Cup a record five times.
•
When Brazil became a republic in 1889,
its leaders were obsessed with all things
French: the national motto “Ordem e
Progresso” (Order and Progress) was
inspired by Auguste Comte's (much longer)
musing on positivism.
