Brazil’s Regions: Planning Your Trip
about brazil, intro (November 29, 2008)THE SOUTHEAST
Most flights to Brazil land in either São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, and it’s here in the Southeast Region, where most travelers begin their journeys in Brazil. Italian immigrants and rich coffee barons built the city of São Paulo into a rich Mecca of commerce and culture. In the late 1800s, hoards of Italian immigrants flowed into the city to work in the coffee trade and the boom brought with it a wealth of architecture, monuments, parks, and city centers. Two spectacular examples include the Theatro Municipal and the Sala São Paulo downtown. The city is also known for its incredible food, and its best restaurants are located in or near the Jardins area and in immigrant communities like Liberdade, the Japanese district. Many visitors drive from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro along the coast, taking in some of the most beautiful beaches in the country along the way. Stops should include Ilhabela, the various beaches around Ubatuba, the historical town of Paraty, and the semi-deserted island of Ilha Grande. To the north of Rio, there’s Cabo Frio with its long stretch of blue water and white sand and Buzios, with so many beaches and islands nearby.
A visit to the city of Rio de Janeiro should include a tour of the royal monuments and museums in the downtown area, such as the Theatro Municipal and Palácio da Ilha Fiscal. Also obligatory is a visit to the Morro do Corcovado (Cristo) monument, a ride in the gondola to Pão de Açúcar, a stroll around the Jardim Botânico, and an afternoon walk along the Copacabana boardwalk. As you come inland from Rio to the state of Minas Gerais, stop at the Serra dos Orgãos National Park for some great hikes and adventure sports. Then, in Minas, you’ll enter the gold-rush territory and the principal attractions are the mountain towns and villages where gold rush took place. Don’t miss Tiradentes, Ouro Preto and Diamantina, three picturesque towns that processed literally tons of gold from 1700 to 1770. The sacred art and gold-leafed wooden sculpture in the churches of these towns is the most spectacular in the country.
THE SOUTH
The southern region comes as a surprise to travelers who don’t know the extent of Brazil’s cultural diversity. The most noticeable difference is that the cities become cleaner, the poverty less dramatic and the people more northern European in appearance. This is noticeable as soon as you enter Curitiba, the gateway to the south. The cities and small mountain towns from Curitiba to Porto Alegre are loaded with German immigrants and they tend to remain in separate colonies with all their cultural traditions intact. In the outskirts of Curitiba are Italian and German colonies with architecture, food and traditions according to each. In most of these colonies, Portuguese was spoken as a second language until only a few years ago. On the way out of Curitiba, you can take a spectacular train ride through the mountains to the city of Paranaguá, one of the oldest coastal colonies in the South. Besides having some interesting colonial architecture, Paranaguá serves as a platform for visiting the Superagui National Park, the Salto Morato Nature Preserve and Ilha do Mel–the first two being pristine slices of the tropical countryside and excellent areas for hiking and camping. llha do Mel is a collection of charming island villages, beaches, and historical sites. Heading south from Curitiba, German influences begin to get very definable in the mountain towns and villages. In the town of Pomerode, German is still the principal language of the inhabitants. Visitors can walk around the neighborhoods, sampling the food, culture, and crafts. In the village of Corupá near Joinville, you can also hike to literally dozens of waterfalls located deep in the mountains, beyond the many picturesque banana farms. On the coast from Joinville to Florianópolis is a string of beach towns that carry the mark of the original Portuguese settlers to the area. The area is called the Emerald Coast due to the sparkling green color of the water there. When you reach Florianópolis, a vast number of options are available–from urban beach towns to semi-deserted inlets surrounded by green mountains. A highlight here is the incredible seafood, prepared with locally harvested mussels, oysters, and fish.
THE NORTHEAST
They say the wind caresses your skin in a special way in the Northeast Region. And when you sit in a beach cabana with a cold coconut water watching the palm trees blowing in the breeze, you’ll begin to feel it. It’s the feeling of paradise. But the Northeast region is also the very heart and soul of Brazil’s culture and reflects the country’s turbulent history. In Salvador, the capital of Bahia and the heart of the Northeast region, you’ll see where slaves were publicly whipped at the Pelourinho, or whipping post. You can also train with a Capoeira school or catch a Candomblé ritual in action. The beaches of Itapuan and Flamengo characterize the very essence of Bossa Nova and the islands and beaches to the south of Salvador are where you go to relax and enjoy the tropical breeze with a cold drink and shady umbrella. Highlights include the island of Morro de São Paulo and in the quaint villages of Arraial d’Ajuda and Trancoso. Heading north from Salvador, you begin a journey along the northern coastal cities, each one with its own, unique personality. In Recife, you’ll encounter some of the oldest monuments in Brazil, from the early days of the colonization and from the Dutch Invasion of 1629. The historical town of Olinda is a living museum with a couple dozen colonial churches and a rich tradition of arts and crafts. These cities are known to have the best cultural festivals in the country and Carnaval here is an unforgettable experience. Continuing north, you’ll pass the pristine beaches and blue water around Maceió, one of the beset kept secrets of the Brazilian coastline. Natal to the north is famous for its mixture of huge white sand dunes and blue ocean. The beaches here are some of the most spectacular in the country–the highlights being the reefs at Maracajaú and the island of Fernando de Noronha, famous for its daily visits by dolphins. By the time most visitors reach Fortaleza at the top of the country, they are surprised by the urbanization they find. The fifth largest city in Brazil, Fortaleza is not always what travelers expect. But get out to the outskirts, especially way out to Jeriquaquara and you’ll be glad you came all this way.
THE CENTRAL WEST
Until recently, the Central West region was known principally for Brazil’s ultra-modern capital city, Brasilia. Today, visitors come from all over the world to visit the incredible flora and fauna of he world’s largest wetlands, the Pantanal. Spanning 250,000 square kilometers (25 million hectares), the low plains of the Paraguay River Valley flood every summer, creating a huge series of waterways, lakes and rivers. In the winter, the waters recede to create small lakes and pools and hundreds of species of birds come to feed on the fish that get trapped there. It’s one of the world’s most fascinating ecosystems. There are nature lodges there that will take you out for photographic safaris and river excursions and you’re practically guaranteed to see Giant Stork, Capybara, Giant Anteaters, Red Billed Toucan, and the rare Blue Macaw. In the highlands, guarding the many rivers that feed into the Pantanal is the town of Bonito with some of the country’s most outrageous adventure sports, including fresh-water snorkeling, rappelling into silent caverns, scuba diving in underwater caves, horseback riding, and rafting. Not far to the north is the incredible Chapada dos Guimarães, with some of the tallest waterfalls in Brazil and some striking and dramatic landscapes.
THE NORTH
If you take a boat along the Amazon River, you’ll pass some of the densest jungle in the world along the largest and widest river in the world. You’ll also see a number of towns and small cities along the banks of the river. Near Manaus, a city of almost three million inhabitants right in the heart of the jungle, you’re likely to see Pink River Dolphins and Tucuxhi Dolphins (the world’s only fresh water dolphins) playing in the two distinct colors of water flowing side-by-side at the Meeting of the Waters, the beginning of the Amazon River. You’ll paddle in a canoe past some of the largest water lilies in the world and see the eyes of the giant Caiman alligators staring at you in the night. The area is still home to numerous indigenous groups and some of them allow visitations by tourists. Downstream, in the Santarém area, you’ll find the most beautiful fresh-water beaches of the region, where you can catch some sun for a day. You can also hike up to the oldest cave paintings in the Americas and see the incredible aboriginal pots and the ceramic art of the Tapijónica tradition, found in museums around the world. On the eastern edge of the Amazon Jungle is the Island of Marajó, where the bird species are as plentiful and varied as in the Southern Pantanal. You can also get a close up look at a working Buffalo ranch. Nearby, the city of Belém marks the end of the Amazon Jungle where the fresh water rivers meet the ocean. Not to be missed is the great Ver-o-Peso market with foods, crafts, and herbal cures from the jungle on sale.
Wherever you go in Brazil, you’ll almost certainly run into the popular self-service style lunch experience, called comida a-quilo or food by the kilo. This is a cafeteria-style experience, but with a distinctly Brazilian accent. You start with a tray and a plate and load up as you pass along the many different meat, veggie and dessert dishes. You choose whatever you like and pay for only what you take…by weight.
Brazil is hungry for the ball! But I’m not talking about Brazilian football (soccer). I’m talking about another national passion, known as pão de queijo, or the cheese ball. This tasty morsel is a cheesy bread ball made with cheese, eggs, oil, salt, and manioc flour. The best are said to come from the Minas Gerais Region, where the fabulous finger food originated from a happy accident. In the 18th century, the wheat flour from Portugal was so bad that the people of the area substituted manioc flour and Brazilian food was born.
São Paulo is so big and spread out that it intimidates a lot of travelers, but two days are really about all you need to take in all the main points. You’ll be taking the metro a bit, but that’s pretty much what everybody does in Sampa (as the locals call it). In this quick walking tour, you’ll see the historical center and many of the fabulous monuments and buildings from the coffee boom days of the late 1800s. Of course, there’s a lot more to the world’s third largest city, including your nights out and shopping in the Bras and Jardins areas. You can take in many of the city’s architectural and cultural sites by walking around the old downtown area. This walking tour takes you to the Theatro Municipal, the Catedral da Sé, the Banespa building and the Mercado Municipal.
It’s important that you not only know about the visa requirements for travel to Brazil, but also the length of stay and other official things relating to your trip.
Some people are looking for vacation spots that are great party places. Others want peace and tranquility. Nothing against the high-energy bump-and-grind now and again, but if you’re looking for paradise, then I suggest heading about an hour and a half north of Maceió, among coconut groves and mangroves to a beach village known as São Miguel dos Milagres and a beachfront lodge called the Pousada do Toque.
Are you ready to check out Brazil’s amazing coastline? I’ve uploaded a series of photos from some of my travels up and down the long coastline of Brazil…from the Northeast Region to the Southern Region and everything in between. Well, not exactly everything, but I’m working on it.
Without a doubt, the Rio de Janeiro section of this Guide Site is going to be bulging with information about hotels, restaurants, shopping, and activities for day and night. I’ll be uploading a Carnival Planner, and much more.
