Brazil - where the blood runs hot
General information
Brazil is the largest country in South America and the only one on the continent where the official language is Portuguese. To the east it opens onto the Atlantic Ocean, and it shares land borders with almost every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.
The capital is Brasília - a city built in the 20th century to a design that made it one of the most interesting examples of modernist architecture. The largest city is São Paulo, while Rio de Janeiro remains the country's most recognisable tourist symbol.
Brazil is huge, and its nature changes dramatically from region to region. The Amazon rainforest covers a large part of the north and west, the Cerrado savannah stretches across the centre, the south has subtropical areas, and along the Atlantic coast there are dozens of large and small seaside resorts.
Climate
Because of its size, Brazil has no single climate. Most of the country is warm all year round, but conditions in the Amazon differ from those in the southern states.
Rio de Janeiro has a tropical climate with warm summers, while winter is drier and usually more pleasant for sightseeing. In the Amazon it is hot and humid all year, and the rainier periods vary by area.
For travellers there is no single "best" season. If your goal is the beach and Rio, the warm months are the natural choice. For tours and nature routes it is best to match the specific region and season.
Culture and history
Brazil is the result of the meeting of different cultures - the indigenous peoples, Portuguese colonisation, the African communities brought by force during the period of slavery, and later waves of migration from Europe and Asia. This diversity can be felt in the language, music, food and everyday life.
Rio de Janeiro is the country's best-known face. The city lies between mountains and the ocean, and its coastline is one of the most recognisable in the world. Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are an inseparable part of Rio's image, but the city offers much more than the beach.
Above it rises Corcovado mountain with the monumental statue of Christ the Redeemer. The monument was unveiled in 1931 and has become one of the symbols of Brazil. From the platform around it there is a panoramic view of Rio, Guanabara Bay and the surrounding mountains.
The other iconic mountain is Sugarloaf - a rock massif reached by cable car. From the top you can see the ocean, the beaches and much of the city.
Rio is also one of the great centres of Brazilian music and carnival. The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is held every year before Lent and is best known for the parades of the samba schools. They prepare elaborate choreography, costumes and huge floats, and perform at the Sambadrome.
Samba is much more than carnival music. It is part of Brazil's history and culture and developed under the strong influence of the country's African communities. Capoeira also has African roots and combines fighting moves, music and dance. Today it is practised both in Brazil and around the world.
Architecturally, Brazil offers something completely different. The capital, Brasília, was designed in the 1950s to plans by Lúcio Costa, with buildings by Oscar Niemeyer. Its monumental government buildings, wide open spaces and characteristic curved concrete forms make the city a kind of museum of modernism. Brasília is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
São Paulo is the other great urban centre. It is a huge metropolis with museums, galleries, restaurants and a varied cultural scene. Its population has been strongly shaped by various migrant communities, including a large Japanese diaspora. The Liberdade district is one of the best-known examples of this influence.
Brazilian cuisine is just as varied. Feijoada - a thick stew of black beans and meat - is considered one of the national dishes. On the coast seafood is widespread, and in different regions you can try dishes made with local produce, cassava, corn, coconut and chilli peppers.
Nature, however, is one of the strongest arguments for travelling to Brazil. The Amazon covers a huge part of the country and offers boat trips, wildlife watching and visits to local communities. Manaus is the main tourist gateway to the region.
Not far from the city is one of the area's characteristic natural phenomena - the Meeting of the Waters of the Rio Negro and the Solimões. Their waters flow side by side for some distance before gradually mixing.
In the south of the country are the Iguaçu Falls, on the border between Brazil and Argentina. The system includes hundreds of individual waterfalls spread over a huge area. The most impressive part is the Garganta del Diablo - "the Devil's Throat", where an enormous volume of water plunges into a deep gorge.
Brazil also offers a completely different kind of nature in the Pantanal - one of the largest tropical wetlands in the world. Here you can see capybaras, caimans, birds and, with a bit of luck, jaguars.
After the nature routes comes the ocean. Brazil's coastline is more than 7,000 kilometres long and includes many resort areas. Besides the famous beaches of Rio, there are destinations such as Florianópolis, Porto de Galinhas and Natal.
One of the best-known places is Salvador da Bahia - a city where Portuguese, African and indigenous cultures intertwine especially strongly. The historic Pelourinho district is known for its colourful colonial buildings and cobbled streets. Salvador is also one of the important centres of Afro-Brazilian culture.
Why and when to visit?
Brazil is a destination for a trip that can hardly be reduced to a single type of holiday. Rio de Janeiro combines city, beach and mountains, the Amazon offers nature and adventure, Iguaçu impresses with its scale, and Brasília and Salvador show completely different sides of the country's history and culture.
When to visit depends on the route. For Rio, the warm months are good for the beach and the atmosphere of the carnival, which usually takes place in February or March. For nature routes in the Amazon and the Pantanal, it is better to choose the season according to the specific area and type of experience.
For a first trip, the combination of Rio de Janeiro and the Iguaçu Falls is a good way to see two of Brazil's most recognisable faces. With more time you can add Salvador, the Amazon or one of the coastal resorts.
Brazil is a huge country, and that is one of its advantages. There is no single landscape, cuisine or cultural tradition that represents everything. Rio is different from the Amazon, Salvador has nothing in common with Brasília, and the modernist capital looks as if it belongs to another era. To understand the country, you have to travel through it - and then its scale starts to make sense.
