Brazilian Rhythms

Salvador 

The first capital of Brazil, Salvador was founded in 1549 as São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos and is well known within the country for its rich cultural life. It’s here that you can best see the influence of African culture in Brazil, evident in music, religion, gastronomy, crafts and traditions – to know Salvador is to delve deeper into Brazil’s roots. Of particular interest is candomblé, a unique religion which combines elements of 

African customs and Christianity – for those that have seen the voodoo ceremonies of West Africa, much will be familiar.

This city of almost three million inhabitants is divided between the Upper and Lower cities and unusually connected by the famous Lacerda Elevator, built in an Art Deco style. Its historic centre has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and houses an impressive ensemble of baroque colonial architecture. The area of Largo do Pelourinho is one of Brazil’s most picturesque cityscapes, with its stone slopes, narrow streets and centuries-old colourful buildings. 

 Chapada Diamantina 

In the heart of the state of Bahia lies Chapada Diamantina National Park; 38,000 km² of mountains, savannah, waterfalls and caves, and as far away from most people’s pre-conceived ideas of Brazil as one can imagine. This is one of Brazil’s great landscapes, yet little known outside of the country, and home to an impressive array of flora and fauna. There is much to discover here, and as well as being great trekking country, it’s also well suited for more gentle explorations – you don’t need to be super fit to make the most of it.

Table top mountains offer superb views, and the park is also home to the country’s second highest waterfalls – which evaporates before it reaches the ground. Wildlife here includes puma, deer and other wild cats, but the real drawcard here is the scenery, and it’s worth taking a couple of days or more to explore it in depth. It’s home to the two highest points of Bahia: “Pico Barbados” (2,033m), and “Pico das Almas” (1,958m).

Of all the exquisite colonial towns scattered around Minas Gerais, Ouro Preto is the jewel in the crown. Significant historically as a centre of gold mining and government, and as the stage for Brazil’s first independence movement, the city remains important in modern times as a centre for education and the arts, and is one of Brazil’s most visited tourist destinations.

Sitting at the feet of the Serra do Espinhaço, Ouro Preto’s colonial centre is larger and has steeper topography than any other historical town in Minas. The narrow, crooked streets of the upper and lower towns tangle together and in places are too rough and precipitous for vehicles. Navigating the vertiginous cobblestone slopes on foot can be tiring, but the views of 23 churches spread out across the hilly panorama are spectacular. The city is a showcase of outstanding art and architecture, including some of the renowned sculptor Aleijadinho’s finest works.

Surrounded by majestic mountains, the intense green of its forests and the Atlantic Ocean’s blue that bathes its internationally famous beaches, Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful cities on the planet.

Its name dates back to the arrival of the Portuguese in the region. When navigators landed here in 1502, they mistook the bay for a river, naming it after the month they were in: January, in Portuguese, ‘Janeiro’. During the 17th century, Rio became an important city due to its port and the sugar industry, but it was thanks to the later gold rush that it became the capital of Brazil in 1763, remaining as such until the creation of Brasilia, in 1960.

Brazil’s second largest metropolis and the country’s main tourist destination, Rio contains a multitude of natural and cultural attractions, including Sugar Loaf Mountain, the statue of Christ the Redeemer – one of the seven wonders of the modern world – the Santa Teresa cable car, samba and the bohemian bars of Lapa. Not to mention its carnival and New Year’s Eve celebrations, among the most famous parties in the world.

Rio is also known for its favelas, shanty towns which sprung up on the slopes of the surrounding mountains. Their buildings often made from salvaged goods such as corrugated iron and scraps of wood, the favelas are where migrants from the countryside come to seek their fortunes in the city, with varying results – most favelas are desperately poor, and some are effectively ruled by criminal gangs. Nevertheless, they are fascinating to explore and show a very different side of life in Rio, often with a strong sense of community spirit and self help organisations.

The beaches, in turn, are a true institution in the life of the ‘cariocas’, as the inhabitants of Rio are called. Take the opportunity to stroll along the sands and sidewalks of Copacabana or Ipanema, try an açaí berry bowl, drink sweet mate tea with the famous O Globo cassava starch biscuits and watch the sun set over the rocks of Arpoador. In the late afternoon, a cold draft beer in any Urca neighborhood bar is a must to wrap up the day and confirm that, as the song goes, “o Rio de Janeiro continua lindo” – Rio de Janeiro remains beautiful.

Manaus 

The capital of the state of Amazonas is the largest urban centre in the northern region of Brazil and the gateway to the wonders of the Amazon rainforest. Founded by the Portuguese in 1669, Manaus increased in importance during the rubber boom at the turn of the 20th century, when the city enjoyed its 

wealthiest period. A walk through its historic centre will demonstrate why it has earned the nickname of ‘Paris of the Tropics’: elaborate palaces, art deco buildings and elegant museums vie for space, making you wonder if you’re really in the Amazon after all. The jewel of Manaus’ architectural crown is perhaps the Opera House, built in the style of the Renaissance. Within the city you’ll find some excellent restaurants to sample the rich Amazonian cuisine; from sophisticated dishes such as pirarucu cod to the classic rib of tambaqui on the grill and, for vegetarians, the obligatory tacumã sandwich, better known as caboclinho.

Manaus doesn’t actually sit on the Amazon River, but on the Rio Negro, and is a few kilometres away from the ‘meeting of the waters’, where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Solimoes, the very different colours of the respective rivers merging at this point. 

The Amazon 

The largest rainforest on the planet, the Amazon covers about 7 million square kilometres, including the largest river basin in the world, and stretches across nine South American nations – although 60% of this impressive forest is in Brazil. Growing everywhere from high mountain slopes to coastal estuaries, the forest can be remarkably diverse.

In the Andes, the first forest vegetation occurs at about 3000 metres, although it’s stunted and sparse. At around 1,600 metres, where there is considerably more rainfall, the moss covered trees of the cloudforest begin. Epiphytes such as orchids and bromeliads grow in abundance here, their bright colours rivalled by those of the iridescent hummingbirds and butterflies which flit from flower to flower. Below 1000 metres is the rainforest proper, the oldest and largest in the world, but even this has many forms. Some of the densest forest grows along the banks of rivers and in the permanent swamps of low-lying regions; taller trees and palms thrive in the areas that are regularly flooded in the rainy season, and the tallest hardwoods are better suited to higher, drier ground.

The Amazon’s climate is equatorial, characterised by high temperatures of between 22 and 28ºC, and high rainfall, with air humidity exceeding 80%.

The forest is home to the greatest range of biodiversity on the planet, home to hundreds of thousands of birds, mammals, fish, insects, plants. One in five bird species on the planet live here, and scientists estimate that a single square kilometre of the Amazon can contain over a thousand tree species.