Area Guide
Below is some overview information on Brazil 's history and also its geography, along with some advice on the best way to travel to Brazil.
With a population of over 186 million and the shear size of the country, Brazil is the firth largest country in the world. It is on the eastern side of South America and its coastline sits on the Atlantic Ocean .
Brazil 's weather is hugely diverse due mainly to its size. It has the humid areas of the Amazon basin in the north all the way through to the Amazon River which runs for 2000 miles through the heart of Brazil and carries more water along its path each day than all the other rivers in the world put together. The river basin also has the famous Amazon Rain Forrest in its region. Here the weather is such that over 200 cm of rain falls each year.
Brazil does not have many high areas and the highlands house the highest point of the country Pico de Neblina at 3014 meters. The region that is the highest lies to the southeast and slopes down to the coast and the Atlantic . Due to the position of Brazil on the South America plate there is very little activity from earthquakes or volcanoes.
Brazil 's climate is varied due to the shear size of the country but you will find that almost all of it is humid with tropical or subtropical pockets. Brazil does have a rainy season and this tends to occur in the Summer months.
Due to the size of Brazil it makes up a large part of South America and borders onto all off the nations of South America, except for Chile and Ecuador . Within Brazil you will find it is split into states, 26 in total. Its capital city Brasilia was built in the late 1950's in the Mato Grasso plateau region.
Since 1763 Rio de Janeiro was the capital city until 1960 when the new Brazilia was built and took over the roll as Brazil 's capital. At this point the position of Rio de Janeiro went into decline; however it is still considered the cultural capital of Brazil and its major city for international travel. In close proximity is Sao Paulo which is following closely behind Rio and is increasing in size at a dramatic rate.
Brazil remains the only Portuguese speaking nation in the whole of South America and this is due to the colonization of the northeastern areas of Brazil in the 1500. The Portuguese at that time set up and established a great number of plantations and used slaves brought in from Africa to work on the plantations. Due to the invasion by Napoleon in Portugal in 1808, the Portuguese royalty relocated to Rio de Janeiro . However soon afterwards in 1822 Brazil proclaimed it independence.
