About Brazil

Full country name: República Federativa do Brasil
Area: 8.51 million sq km
Population: 175 million
Capital City: Brasília
Language: Portuguese
Religion: 70% Roman Catholic; also a significant proportion who either belong to various cults or practice Indian animism
Visas: Passports must be valid for at least six months from date of entry. Visas are required for tourists of many nationalities, including Australia, Canada and the USA; visas are generally for 90 days, with one extension of up to 90 days possible.
Government: Federal republic
Head of State: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Major Industries: Textiles, shoes, chemicals, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, arms, soy beans, orange juice, beef, chicken, coffee, sugar
Major Trading Partners: EUA, Central and South America, Asia, USA

A country is truly fortunate if it can preserve its nature, culture and traditions in living examples.  In Brazil, 14 places have so far been included by Unesco on the World Heritage List.  There are monuments to human sill and ingenuity, to its capacity for self-expression through art forms, and there are monuments fantastically sculpted by nature and molded by time.  All reflect the great efforts made by Brazilians to preserve their heritage. 
Brazil is larger than the USA (excluding Alaska), 2 ½ times the size of India, and larger than Europe (excluding Russia).   In South America, Brazil stands out from the rest of the countries, not solely because it is a former Portuguese colony rather than Spanish one. It is the largest South American republic; only Ecuador and Chile do not have a border with it. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and has the sixth largest population and the 11th largest GDP. There are five distinctive geographical regions. Over one third of the country is in the Amazon Basin, the most diverse jungle in the world in terms of plant and animal life. The coastal strip is sandwiched between the Atlantic and the sheer mountainsides of the Great Escarpment rising to the Planalto Brasileiro. Almost every state has some land in this central plain. In the south there is another river basin, the Parana-Paranagua basin which like the Amazon, contains a unique ecosystem, the Pantanal. The final region is the Guiana Highlands, which lies north of the Amazon and is part forest, part desert.
Brazil’s people are even more diverse. Today there are probably only 300,000 indigenous people remaining but still new tribes are being discovered every decade. The rest of the population comprises Europeans, most significantly, Portuguese, Germans and Italians.  The country has the largest population of African descendents outside the continent of Africa (The University of Bahia in Salvador boasts the only chair in Yoruba in the Western hemisphere).  Also Brazil has the largest population of Japanese descendent outside of Japan centered in São Paulo. Each of these races has brought its cultures, customs and language that have made their mark on modern Brazil, turning it into a veritable melting pot.

 

 

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