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Background: Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil overcame more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of the country when in 1985 the military regime peacefully ceded power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of its interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is today South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. Highly unequal income distribution remains a pressing problem.

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By laurentbon
September 1st 2008

Exploring Rio

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Candidate´s sonsored street music

M writing - We found a pretty good hostal quickly - decided to go for ambience over comfort which has proven a good choice even if we are already a little sleep deprived each morning due to the staff treating the place like their personal party-space from 6.30am and throughout the day. Brazilian pop can be really quite bad! Anyway, we are still on the hillside in Santa Teresa - a bohemian, arty kind of area with great vistas over the bay of Rio. It is right next to a Favela, but we think not a particularly poor one as there [View Full Entry]

MAC & Christ The Redeemer in the background

By Rebecca V
February 25th 2008

Cidade Maravihosa

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Viver na favela...
"Living in a favela is an ART. Nobody robs. Nobody hears. Nothing is lost. Those who are wise obey those who gove the orders." -Escadaria de Selaron Lapa, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, I believe it is impossible not to romanticized this city, and anyone who disagrees with me only has to come and listen to the samba music streaming out of the local street-side bars, see the beautiful green mountains set against blue ocean and white sands, glimpse the huge statue of Cristo Redemptor and the impoverished felevas looking down on the city from the hillsides, or smell Lapa after any Friday night street party... cachaça, lime, urine, cooking grease... extremes of decadence and human misery... this place is disturbing in the best way possible. People who live in [View Full Entry]

By traveltheworld
February 17th 2008

Rio de Janeiro

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Beach in morning at Rio

Rio City Rio is an amazing city with its great diversity from 37 white sand beaches, lush green peaks, skyscrapers and largest slums in the world. It is a city that buzzes day and night, it's energy puslating rhought the city streets and with carnaval around the corner, there was no let up!Our hotel was based in Lapa with its colonial buildings, bars and samba clubs. Lapa apparently had its best days before the 20th century but is now experiencing something of a cultural renaissance with its old buildings being restored and is now the centre of the Bohemian scene. At [View Full Entry]

By LegallyBlonde
February 5th 2008

Carnaval!!!!!!

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Our Costumes

Its Carnival time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (or Carnaval as they say here) And here I am in Rio de Janeiro. You have never experienced a party until you have experienced this I am telling you. Samabdrome I honestly don't think words can describe this event. This was the night I had most been looking forward to and it did not disappoint. Unfortunatly it rained half the night and I felt a bit ill but it was still fantastic. We were sat in stand 13 which was on the left hand side right at the finishing line and we had a great view. Its hard [View Full Entry]

By Rebecca V
February 5th 2008

Once upon a time in Brazil...

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Churrascaria
The waiters run around with giant spears of meat and show it in your face, its an all you can eat deal. There is a sign on your table: green means more meat please, red means I´ve had enough

This is my first blog entry about Brasil. In short we have been in Brasil for about a month, we started in Sao Paulo staying with a family, went into the interior for a bit to do some trekking on camping, and now we are in Rio which is reveling in post carnaval madness. We´ve seen a lot of the many faces of this imense country: Brasilian meet buffets and caipirinhas, towering waterfalls and mountains, vast farm land and cattle grazing, live samba bands in the streets and crazed soccer fans, extreme contrast of wealth betweem the afluent areas of Rio [View Full Entry]

By ezoemcc
February 5th 2008

Brazil Photos

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Corcovado from my hotel bar

A selection of Brazil Photos [View Full Entry]

By Dicki
February 4th 2008

Carnaval (Chapter 4 Flags, Drags and an Afro!)

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

The Dream Team!
Check it out! Not a bad effort eh....especially Shaun as Goldilocks, Todd (big dude at the back) as a strong man and King Bradley in the front row!

Day 4 of the Carnaval and the idea is as follows, we get afro wigs, Brazilian flags and make some kind of silly outfits out of them! Cool idea huh...after all everybody in this town is in party mood!! Now obviously the plan doesn´t just involve dressing up like fools and sitting around quietly in our respective hostels, far from it! We are off to a Beer Ball at the Scala nightclub in Leblon! Now basically that means you pay 50 Reais (about 15 of your hard earned British pounds!) and that gets you entry and as much beer as you [View Full Entry]

By LegallyBlonde
February 3rd 2008

Rio de Janeiro: the city that never sleeps

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Our Route
This is the route we will be taking around South America

Arrival Wow, so I'm finally here. And what an adventure. The flight over was relatively ok. I managed to get a emergency exit seat but that was about the only good part of my trip. Firstly, even though it was a 10hr 30min flight, there were only main screen t.v's which showed nothing for the first two hours. This was also how long we had to wait to get our food. So then it was 1.30am and everyone decided to go to sleep, as you would. I woke up an hour later and they had just started showing the first film, [View Full Entry]

By traveltheworld
February 3rd 2008

Pantanal to Rio

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

Otter in Pantanal

Weeks 14-16 In readiness for our trip to the Pantanal, we were encouraged to pack day bags full of deet, suncream and clothes to keep off the mozzies although none of us were prepared for the onslaught of mozzie bites and monsoonal rainfall that we encountered. Having driven as far as possible by truck, we all transferred to the back of 4x4 jeeps to be taken by our host to Fazenda Boa Sorte - a working farm in the Pantanal. At least that was the intention but at the first police post, we realised that there was a major problem. Although [View Full Entry]

By Dicki
February 3rd 2008

Carnaval (Chapter 3 - The Sambodrome)

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa

The Sambodrome
Its parade time!!

So last time I wrote, you may recall that Chris and I totally lost Brad, Ben and the others...but we managed to turn the situation around and have a great night and following morning, getting to bed around 9am! (after finishing me brekkie of course!) Well you can imagine how happy we were to see them when they called at our hotel at 11am. This is Rio baby....who needs more than 2 hours sleep! Obviously first things first, we told them how awesome our night had been and how we were better off without the pair of them...losers! Still I suppose [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Lapa