Brazilians are known as one of the world's most joyful people with lively celebrations (Carnaval), which gets more animated the further north you go. This lifestyle can be watched and enjoyed on the beaches, football matches, on the streets and in the samba clubs.

The landscape of beaches, mountains and forrests, praised for its beauty receives incredible destruction (of the Amazon) on the other hand. Besides: Bad news for all those who quit eating meat because cattle ranching was killing the rain forrest: soybean farming is now one of the biggest causes of deforestation in Brazil.

The land is full of stark contrasts. The Blacks are widely underrepresented in the government and suffer the lion's share of poverty. Carneval is a time of freedom while sexual repressiveness lurks the rest of the year. Poor an Rich live in such close proximity that they are often separated than nothing more than a highway.

The Brazilian upper class has a lifestyle that few in Western Europe enjoy, while one-third of the country lives in third-world conditions. There are few points where the lives of the poor and rich intersect. One is on the beach, which is the social stomping ground of both, the favelado and the urbanite. The other is Carneval. In Salvador and in other cities of the Northeast, everybody usually comes together for the lively street-parties.

Brazil has the 10th strongest economy of the world due to exploitation of the Amazon rain-forrest. It is the world's fifth-most populous country with 185 million residents but has one of the smallest population densities due to its large size. Most of the people live along the coast (similar to Australia) and 75% call the south and south-eastern parts of Brazil their home. In the Northeast is the highest concentration of Afro-Brazilians, with Salvador as its cultural capital. People living in the Amazon are called Caboclos (lit. copper-colored), the mixed descendents of indigenous people and the Portuguese. In the south is the most European of the Population, descendants of Italian and German immigrants.

If you are a solo women traveler in Brazil, the range of responses you will experience depend on where you travel. In the more traditional rural areas of the Northeast (Ceará, Piauí & Maranhao), where most of the people are an ethnic mix, you will certainly arouse curiosity if traveling without a male companion. Although machismo is an undeniable element in the Brazilian social structure, it is less overt than in Latin America.

Soccer is the most popular sports here and Brazilians are mad about it. If there is a big international game, no one goes to work. Even the government is prepared to spend whatever it takes to win the World Cup. You'll see children playing matches of soccer in the streets and on the beaches, anywhere.

The best-selling Brazilian author Paulho Coelho is Latin America's second-most read novelist after Gabriel Garcia Márquez while Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest writer. He wrote Quinchas Borba and Dom Casmurro.

General information for GOL flights within Brazil. GOL is the cheapest air-carrier in Brazil. They do have a new fleet of planes and fly almost everywhere within Brazil and to some other south-american countries. As a foreigner you need a American Express Credit Card to be able to make online-bookings. Visa and Mastercard are not accepted. If you are in Brazil the best option is to go to an travel-agent and do the booking here. They charge around 30 Reais extra but you don't have any further hazzles. You can change the date of most of the GOL flights for free upon 24 hours of departure.

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