Occupying almost half of the South American continent, Brazil is an enigma to its Spanish-speaking neighbors, and to the world beyond. It’s a land where you can find modern computer assembly plants in the middle of the Amazon jungle, not far from aboriginal tribes that still dress in traditional jungle loincloths. It’s a land where bustling concrete cities are barely able to keep tropical forests from encroaching and covering everything in green. It’s the charming, rural hospitality you’ll find in Minas Gerais, right alongside the most brutal driving conditions and aggressive drivers you’ll find anywhere. And Brazil is a lot more.

Brazil is beautiful—with lush, tropical forests, thousands of bubbling waterfalls, silent caves and sparkling beaches, and vast fields of coffee and sugar that span like oceans. Brazil is also big—the fifth largest country in the world, offering travelers a plethora of options, destinations, and diversions. You may choose to stay on a working coffee plantation in the south of Minas Gerais and participate in the harvest. Or take a train ride through dramatic mountains, valleys, and rural farmlands reminiscent of northern Europe in the early 1900s. You might swim in a clear lagoon, then relax on an island’s white beachwith some Afro-Brazilian music and a cool caipirinha. Or walk barefoot into an ancient cavern and sit alone in pure darkness.

Brazil is diverse—and like its vast landscape, its people are diverse. Brazil is not just samba, Carnaval, and Copacabana. Its unique history has created an abundance of nationalities, cultural differences, language variations, regional customs, foods, and religions.
When the Portuguese began colonizing Brazil in 1504 with their official arrival in Porto Seguro, their intention was to extract as many riches as possible. The first attraction was the beautiful, red hardwood of the Pau Brasil tree. Later eyes turned to cocoa, sugar, and eventually the grand prize: gold and jewels. The northeast region is where the colonization first took hold; the cities of Salvador da Bahia and Recife/Olinda became major centers of the sugar and cocoa trade. To this day, sugar plantations blanket the hillsides of the northeast for as far as the eye can see. The region offers a three-dimensional view into the 16th and 17th centuries through its historical cities, colonial architecture, gold-laden churches, and age-old festivals.

The only place equal to Bahia in its association with all things Brazilian is, of course, Rio de Janeiro, the cidade maravilhosa (marvelous city). Thrust into the forefront by the great gold rush in Minas Gerais in the 18th century, Rio became the most important channel for extracting Brazil’s great wealth. It wasn’t until the Portuguese royal court spent its years of exile in the city, during Napoleon’s scouring of Europe, that Brazil began its climb to independence. Rio gained a vast number of 19th-century buildings, parks, and grand public squares in the process. The museums and architectural complexes in downtown Rio de Janeiro take weeks to see completely. But competition from the city’s 20th-century marvels is often a tempting distraction: the boardwalk of Copacabana, Carnaval, and the great monument of the Cristo Redentor, overlooking the city with arms open wide.

Brazil is quite literally inexhaustible—its vast tropical landscapes encompass the Amazon Jungle, the desert dunes of the Lençõis Maranhenses, and the largest wetlands in the world, the Pantanal, not to mention more than 7,000 kilometers of coastline. There are national parks where you can practice mountain climbing, rappelling, white-water rafting, and waterfall cascading. There are marine reserves where you can scuba dive with tropical fish, sea turtles, sharks, lobsters, and even visit wrecked ships on the sandy bottom of the ocean. Skin divers can snorkel in offshore reefs, natural pools, and underwater corridors, looking into the marine world as if into an aquarium. In Mato Grosso do Sul, there is a vertical cavern that is home to hundreds of red-breasted macaws; and it has a pool of crystal-clear water at the bottom. You can rappel down to get a closer look. In Chapada Diamantina you can hike up to the top of the chapadas (flat mountain mesas) and look out over the vast and rugged countryside. Then go for a swim in a lake of sparkling fresh water, surrounded by tiny fish nibbling at your arms and legs.

Brazil is alive; a country in constant movement, bubbling with excitement, activity and change. See for yourself.