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The country is like a continent. Brazil stretches over an area of several thousands of kilometers and offers a diverse landscape: tropical rainforests, high mountains, endless beaches, large fields and the Amazon River with its gigantic delta. The road net is well developed and it is a lot of fun to discover it on a motorcycle. Rio de Janeiro is always worth a visit.
The city is famous for example for the Sugar Leaf, the carnival and the beautiful girls along the Copacabana. Especially impressive is also Rio’s location. The town is situated at the edge of the rainforest, interspersed by hills, surrounded from bays and palm beaches. Arriving here anyone will feel that Rio means pure joy in life. And the Corcovado with its 30 m high statue of Christ watches over everything.
East of Rio a jagged mountain range starts. The mountains are a treasure chest of gold and jewels. Therefore one finds precious towns like Ouro Preto here. Eleven baroque churches are located in town. They are just as pretty as the mountain range in its surrounding area. If you want to experience the Amazon River you’ll definitely need to load your motorcycle onto a ship. From it one can comfortably observe the giant trees in the tropical forest and the exciting animal world beneath the green roof of leaves.
The northeast looks totally different. Away from the coast the soil is dried up. Only cactuses and bushes survive in this environment. If there are some green fields they are crowded with large cattle flocks. Salvador de Bahia is the most important town of the region. In ancient times it was the center for the trade with slaves from Africa. Even until today Bahia cannot deny its African influences. Brazil’s south is formed by European immigrants.
One of the reasons could be that this region due to its geographical location has four seasons. Blumenau was built by Germans. Half-timbered houses and Black Forest Cake are a very common sight in town. Porto Alegre was inhabited by Italians due to wine yards. Immigrants from Portugal settled on the Santa Catarina isle and founded the town Florianópolis.
The town surrounded by its romantic bays, dunes and white beaches is a popular tourist destination even until today. If one is already in the southern area one should definitely check out the Cataratas do Iguacu waterfalls. It is located in the border triangle between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. With much noise the water drops straight down for almost 300 meters.
The variety of the landscape can also be found on the menu. In the north the slaves from Africa influenced the cooking. Specialties are Vatapá (shrimps, fish oil, coconut milk, bread and rice), Sarapatel (liver, heart, tomatoes, paprika, onions and gravy) and Caruru (shrimps, okra, onions and paprika). In the Amazon area one finds Pato no Tucupi (duck in gravy from herbs) and Tacacá (a thick yellow soup with shrimps and garlic).
Rio is known for Feijoada (stew from black beans, sausages, chops, pig ears and tails with rice, cooked vegetables and slices of oranges). People like to drink vitamin drinks (thick fruit and vegetable juices with milk) and local coffee. The Brazilian national drink is Caipirinha (mashed limes, brown sugar, Cachca and crashed ice).
Some geography:
The Republic of Brazil stretches over an area of 8.5 million square kilometers. This equals about half of South Americas space. National language is Portuguese. The majority of the Brazilians are of Roman-Catholic belief. They celebrate their national holiday on September 7th. On that day in 1822 Brazil became independent from Portugal.
Black & white:
It can be very useful to know at least a few phrases in Portuguese. English, Spanish or German are hardly known outside of large towns, hotels or tourism destinations.
Brazils large cities are plagued by a high crime rate. The slums (Favelas) should be definitely be avoided. After the break of dawn one should also stay away from the quiet downtown districts and the beaches. In case one is attacked one should not try to fight back. Afterwards one should immediately inform the embassy. |
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