My Thoughts : Brazil

Why I LOVE so much my country!

Brazil is a vast country, it has 8.515.767 Km² which makes it the fourth largest continuous country in the world! The most stacking characteristic of Brazil is the fact that it starts around 32 degrees south and goes up north to about 5 degrees north of the Equator. Why this so important? Climate! If you look at the World Map you will see that Brazil is the largest country to reactive sun light! Our geographical position allows us to cultivate virtually any plant, livestock or microorganisms that we decide to. This is a great thing, but it is not the reason, this is the cause!

Brazilian colonization started by Portuguese in 1500 A.D. and very soon the slavery trade came to be. So Brazilians, in its birth, were a mix of Indian (true Brazilians), Portuguese (European) and Africans. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Brazil received large number of Asian immigrants (especially from Japan) complementing the mix! So we are a people blessed with blood from almost everywhere! I know that most countries these days have also mix people, but we had the Portuguese inheritance that gave us o more comprehensive and less radical approaches to differences. Surely we have racism in Brazil and I hope that we get rid of it! It will take time but hopefully humanity will also do it! What we have not are the radical position that lead to extreme violence, such as ethnic wars, mass murder in schools, shopping centers, etc. (even that some are starting to happen, due to copycat and a sense of injustice, most likely!). But Brazilians are FUN! We are the only people that even in the worse situations; we can dance, sing and smile! People from around the world that came to Brazil during the Football World Cup never felt more happy and enjoyed it fully!

But Brazil is vast and nature was also favorite. I had the luck to visit some of the best national parks in the USA in 1980. Parks like Sequoia, Bryce, Teton, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are truly gems of Nature. I am sure all makes Americans proud and care about each! In Brazil we have our National Parks, places like Pantanal, Xingu, Serra da Canastra, Sete Cidades, Fernando de Noronha, etc. are just as nature gems as the American parks. Pantanal is our everglades, a wetland with 200.000 Km² where you can look down to thousands of birds’ nests! YES DOWN!

Ninhal in Pantanal

Fernando de Noronha is our middle Atlantic island with unique sea views and life. Sete cidades is a 14.000 year man site and has posed some difficult explaining to the man migration through the Americas. We also have more than 8.500 km of cost line, most of it tropical! This makes Brazil the most tropical cost line anywhere! The beaches, or NATAURE WHY DID YOU MAKE THEM! It is impossible to describe so, see one below to get an idea!

Being so vast, Brazil has great differences in food! You can eat a barbeque in Rio Grande do Sul cooked in an open trench or find international food in São Paulo, a great Tutu mineiro dish in Minas Gerais, a acarajé in Bahia, a tapioca in any Brazilian northeast state, a duck with Tucupi in Belém do Pará or Pirarucu fish in Manaus, Amazonia.

On the side of fruits, NATURE went ballistics! You can eat berries in the south, Jaboticabas in the middle, Cajá, Siriguela, Cajú in the northeast, Serrado fruits, like Pequi, Mangaba and Araticum, are just unique as the serrado itself. Açaí and Cupuaçu in the north! All will make you travel to tastes, smells and sensations never experienced before!