Brazil, is a country of football, samba, carnival, sandy beaches, colorful birds, Açaí, etc. The list is much longer.
The conclusions are simple – go to Brazil, stay safe, and enjoy your time. 🙂
p.s. Tomorrow, we’re moving to totally different place.
Stay tuned. 🙂
Brazil is definitely too big for the majority of single trips. I spent lovely time there (twice), but didn’t have enough time to explore as much as I’d like to.
I hope to have a chance to go to Brazil once more, then a few national parks are going to be on my list (e.g., Lençóis Maranhenses, Aparados da Serra, Serra da Bodoquena, Pantanal Matogrossense, Chapada dos Veadeiro, and Fernando de Noronha).
The Brazilian real (R$, BRL) is the official currency of Brazil.
Is it possible to describe climate in Brazil in 1 word?
-I would say it’s “warm”. However, it’s not completely true. Brazil is a huge country, you can find there variety of climate zones, i.e., tropics and desert, but also colder places.
Spanish is an official language in almost all countries in Latin and South America.
But not in Brazil.
Portuguese is the official language in Brazil.
While knowing Spanish, you can still manage a lot; and Spanish is rather more useful in Brazil than English.
Brazil has an extremely rich wildlife. It’s definitely a country for nature lovers!
Favela is kind of Brazilian slum; suburb of the big city, where poor citizens live.
The term may be not completely right, because there are poorer and reacher favelas; relatively safe of extremely dangerous, etc.
Anyway, a good advice – don’t go to favelas on your own, and probably taking a tour to favela is also controversial, at the end, favela is not a zoo!
Almost everywhere, you cannot feel 100% safe, because people are only people and something may always happen. Still, some places are considered to be more dangerous than the others.
While visiting big cities in Brazil you should stay very careful, e.g., even Brazilians warn foreigners about Rio de Janeiro. I don’t have any bad experience, but I know people who weren’t so lucky.
What’s more “Brazilian”: football or samba?
Well, the answer is a bit tricky, because bot hof them are definitely symbols of Brazil; however, bot of them not originate from Brazil.
What’s the most popular sport in Brazil?
-Of course, it’s football.
I should probably just write “there is no Brazil without football”. 😉
However, football came to Brazil only at the end of 19th century.
Another very well known beach in Rio de Janeiro (and in Brazil) is Ipanema Beach, located in the Ipanema district.
Which one, Copacabana or Ipanema, is better?
-Well, hard to say; I didn’t spend much time on any of them, however, Copacabana looked like “always crowded”, so Ipanema would be my choice.
Copacabana beach is located in Copacabana district of Rio de Janeiro.
I guess, Copacabana is the most famous beach in the world!
One can easily recognize the area by its characteristic promenade (partly seen in today’s picture). Isn’t it a nice pattern?
Some people claim, that the most beautiful beaches in the world are located in Brazil.
I’m not sure, is it true, but there are some very famous Brazilian beaches (not only the ones I’ll show you tomorrow and the day after).
The flag of Brazil (A Auriverde) is one of the better known flags. And there are in Brazil many souvenirs just with the image of the flag. Well, I think the flag is very nice; I’m saying it also as an astronomer. 😉
I have to admit, before visiting Rio, I didn’t really expect to see any historical buildings there. But you can find an old town in Rio de Janeiro.
Sugarloaf is a mountain in Rio de Janeiro, of about half of the height (396 meters) of Corcovado Mountain.
I think, Sugarloaf and Corcovado mountains are must-visit places in Rio; both provide scenic views.
One can take a cable car to reach the summit of Sugarloaf.
Sugarloaf is also popular among the rock climbers.
Corcovado is a name of the mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It’s 700 meters high and mostly famous for the statue of Jesus Christ (Christ the Redeemer).
The statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro (Christ the Redeemer statue) is one of the big (literally big) attractions of Rio. Moreover, the statue is kind of symbol of Rio de Janeiro and even of Brazil!
The statue is 30 metres tall (plus 8 meter pedestal).
It’s located on the Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park.
Is it worth to go there?
-Absolutely! The trip to the top is very nice and the view is beautiful.
Rio de Janeiro (or just Rio) is a capital of Rio de Janeiro state; but it’s not a capital of Brazil.
Rio is very popular among the tourists and I guess, people visit Rio all year round.
Within the next days, I’ll show you some of the “must-see” places in Rio de Janeiro.
If you don’t have so much time in Brazil, go to Rio de Janeiro. You’ll find there (and its vicinity) a bit of almost everything what typical for Brazil, i.e., World Heritage Sites, nature, beaches, jungle, birds, forest, waterfalls, samba, carnival, football and fresh food (with Açaí dessert). 🙂