Tips

Rio de Janeiro

Jammed into the world's most beautiful setting - between ocean and escarpment - are seven 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 few years, and there is even a special police unit which patrols areas frequented by gringos.

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 in front of one of the most densely populated residential areas on the planet. (It is also the place where you are most likely to be robbed in Brazil.) 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.

Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf) is God's gift to the picture-postcard industry. Two cable cars climb 1300m above Rio and the Baía de Guanabara and, from the top, Rio looks the most beautiful city in the world. The 120 sq km 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.

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

Brasília may be a World Heritage Site, but it is only of interest to town planning and architecture students, and those keen to witness the folly of man on a metropolitan scale. It must have looked good on paper, and still looks good in photos, but in the flesh, forget it. Designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, urban planner Lucio Costa, and landscape architect Burle Marx, the city was built in an incredible three years between 1957 and 1960. Unfortunately, the world's most ambitious planned city is designed for automobiles and air-conditioners, not people. Distances are enormous and no-one 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, were not part of the plan for an inland capital and live in favelas up to 30km outside the city, called 'anti-Brasílias'.

São Paulo

The biggest city in South America is a city of immigrants and ethnic neighbourhoods. 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 and 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 Pátio do Colégio.

My personal comment:
As a "paulistana" myself, I say it´s true: I wouldn´t dream of living anywhere else. I love São Paulo!!!! :o)

The Amazon

The Amazon is a gigantic system of rivers and forests, covering half of Brazil and extending into neighbouring 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.

The most common jumping-off point for excursions into the Amazon is Manaus, which lies beside the Rio Negro, 10km 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.

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 Pantanal

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.

Salvador / Bahia

Bahia is Brazil's most Africanised 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 centre 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. Carnival 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 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.

Iguaçu Falls

The Rio Iguaçu arises in the coastal mountains of Paraná and Santa Catarina, the Serra do Mar, and snakes west for 600km 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 275 falls are over 3km wide and 80m 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.

Jericoacoara

Jericoacoara is the latest remote-and-primitive 'in' beach to become popular among backpackers and hipper Brazilians. Situated on the Ceará coast, north-west 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 east along the beach. You can also hire horses and gallop 18km 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 also 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 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.

Thanks Bia for helping with info