Brazil is the largest country in Latin America. It covers almost half of South America (47,3%) in an area of 8.547.403,5 km². Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world after Canada, Russia, China and the United States. Except for a few number of islands, Brazil is a unique and continuous extension of land. The Equator crosses the north region of the country near Macapa; the Capricorn crosses the country in the south near Sao Paulo.

The extension of Brazil from east to west (4.319,4 km) is almost the same as its length from north to south (4.394,7 km). Brazil has borders with French Guiana, Surinam, British Guiana, Venezuela and Colombia in the north, Uruguai and Argentina in the south, and Paraguai, Bolivia and Peru in the west. Equador and Chile are the only two countries in South America that don’t have borders with Brazil. The Atlantic Ocean spreads all over the east coast of the country, offering 7.367 km of sea-shore.

Portuguese is the national language, but the accent is very different from Portugal and other Portuguese colonies. Some people say that Brazilians speak “Brazilian” as well as Americans speak “American” instead of English.

Still, there are many Brazilians descendent from immigrants who speak German and Italian, mainly in the cities of the south of the country.

A mixture of races made Brazil a country with a unique and rich culture. It started with Indians, Africans and Portugueses, but soon people came from all over the planet: Europeans, Asians, Jews, Arabians. The result was a happy and open-minded kind of people which you can only find in Brazil. Due to this diversity, Brazil is one of the last provincies on earth where nobody is a foreigner, where it is possible to change a destiny without losing ones identity and where each Brazilian has a little bit of the world in his blood.

Maybe this is the reason why Brazilians give everyone a warm welcome. According to researches with tourists who have visited Brazil, 97,2% of them intend to come back soon; 56,5% had their expectations completely fulfilled, and 31,7% had their expectations excelled. As you can see, those who come to Brazil become fans since the first visit.

The current money in Brazil is Real (R$). Dollars and traveller checks can be easily

exchanged in hotels, banks and travel agencies. Most establishments accept credit cards.

The weather is tropical most of the time, with some variation according to the region.

The average temperature is 28ºC in the north and 22ºC in the south.

Fonte: Portal Brasileiro do Turismo
www.turismo.gov.br