Western Brazil, Brazilia, the Pantanal, Amazonia & Beyond

By John Waggoner

We travel to grow – our Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise – sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hunter Publishing
• Release date: Apr 24, 2010
• ISBN: 9781588439574

Book preview

Western Brazil: Brazilia, the Pantanal, Amazonia & Beyond

John Waggoner

Hunter Publishing, Inc.

Introduction

History

Geography

Language

Population

Culture

Cuisine

Travel Information

Visa & Customs

Airlines

Money

Gratuities

Costs

Time Zones

Dialing Out

Electric Current

Health & Vaccinations

Staying Safe

Driving in Brazil

Brazil’s Top 20

Holidays

Embassies & Consulates

Information Sources

The Central West

How This Section Works

Road Trips

Wildlife Observation

Sport Fishing

Natural Wonders

Culture & Nightlife

Cuiabá

How to Get Here

Getting Around

For More Information

Travel Agencies & Guides

Festivals & Events

On the Transpantaneira Highway

Sightseeing

Where to Eat

Where to Stay

What to Buy

Side-Trips

Nobres

Poconé

Barão de Melgaço

Jaciara & Rondonópolis

Chapada dos Guimarães

How to Get Here

For More Information

Tips For Enjoying the Park

Travel Agencies & Guides

Sightseeing in Town

Adventures in the Park

The Trail of the Waterfalls

The Trail of the Rocks

Paredão de Eco

Cidade de Pedra

Adventures Around the Park

Portão do Inferno

Aroe Jari Cavern

Center of South America

On Horseback

Rappelling

Canyoning

Where to Stay

Camping

Where to Eat

What to Buy

The Pantanal Wetlands

How to Get Here

Planning Your Trip

Safety Tips

What to Bring

Flora & Fauna

Adventures on Land: Pantanal Ranches

Ranches in Aquidauana

Adventures on Water: Pantanal Fishing Lodges

Mato Grosso do Sul

Campo Grande

How to Get Here

For More Information

Sightseeing

What to Buy

Where to Stay

Where to Go Out

Where to Eat

Bonito

How to Get Here

Getting Around

For More Information

Travel Agencies & Tour Guides

Adventures

Adventures on the Water

Rafting & Tubing

Snorkeling

Scuba Diving

Waterfalls

The Kadiwéu Nation

Where to Eat

Where to Stay

What to Buy

Central Highlands: Brasília & the Cerrado

Brasília & the Federal District

How to Get Here

Getting Around

For More Information

Brazil’s most famous architect

Sightseeing

Museums

Government Buildings

Other Sights

Adventures on Land

Adventures on the Water

Where to Stay

Where to Eat

What to Buy

Side-Trip

Emas National Park: Safaris in the Brazilian Savanna

Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park

Flora & Fauna

For More Information

Planning Your Trip

Local Guides & Travel Agencies

Adventures in the Park

<>Rappelling

<>Scenic Overlooks

<>Valley of the Moon

<>Waterfalls in the Park

<>Waterfalls at Rio de Couros

<>Waterfalls at Rio do Macaco

<>Waterfalls at Rio Cristal

Moinho Village

Whale Hill

Where to Stay

<>Alto Paraíso de Goiás

<>São Jorge

Where to Eat

<>In Alto Paraíso

<>In São Jorge

The Amazon

How This Section Works

The Rainforest

Ever-Changing Environments

Wildlife

Tips for Enjoying the Amazon

Natural Wonders

Amazon Beach Resorts

Wildlife Observation

Amazon Culture

Rugged Adventures

Dining & Nightlife

The Western Amazon: Manaus, Rio Negro & Rio Solimões

Manaus

How to Get Here

Getting Around

For More Information

Staying Safe in the City

Staying Safe in the Jungle

Tour Agencies & Guides

Festivals & Events

Where to Stay

Sightseeing

The Flavors of the Western Amazon

Museums

Adventures on Land

Adventures on the Water

<>Beaches

<>Long River Trips

<>Sport Fishing

Where to Eat

Where to Go Out

Where to Stay

<>Jungle Lodges

What to Buy

Side-Trips

<>The Waterfalls of Presidente Figueiredo & Balbina

<>Staying Safe: Hostile Natives on Highway 174

River Boat Adventures

What to Bring

Deep Jungle Expeditions

Adventures Down the Amazon River

Maués: The Land of Guaraná

Parintins Island: Festival in the Forest

Adventures Up the Rio Negro

Anavilhanas Archipelago & Jaú Park

Novo Airão

How to Get Here

Getting Around

Caboclos: The Dwellers of the Amazon

Jaú Park

Adventures on Land

Adventures on Water

Where To Stay

Where to Eat

What to Buy

Side-Trip

The Mariuá Archipelago

Pico de Neblina

Tips for Enjoying the Park

São Gabriel de Cachoeira

How to Get Here

Where to Stay & Eat

Travel Services

Adventures in Pico de Neblina Park

Side-Trips

Adventures Up the Rio Solimões

Mamori e Juma State Park

Adventures in the Park

Where to Stay & Eat

The Mamirauá Reserve

How to Get Here

Adventures in The Mamirauá Reserve

When to Go

Where to Stay

Eastern Amazônia

Pará

Belém

How to Get Here

Getting Around

Staying Safe

For More Information

Festivals & Events

Tour Agencies & Guides

Sightseeing

Historic Sites

Parks

Museums & Cultural Centers

Historic Churches

Legends of the Amazon

Adventures on the Water

Delta Cruises & River Excursions

Side-Trips

Mosqueiro Island

Icoaraci

The Flavors of the Eastern Amazon

Where to Eat

Where to Go Out

Where to Stay

What to Buy

Ilha de Marajó

When to Go

Getting There & Getting Around

The Towns

For More Information

Sightseeing

Adventures in Marajó

What to Buy

Where to Stay

Lodging in Soure

Lodging in Salvaterra

Ranches

Santarém: the Pearl of the Tapajós

Getting There & Getting Around

For More Information

Sightseeing

Adventures on Land

Adventures on the Water

Where to Stay

Where to Eat

Side-Trip

Alter-do-Chão

Adventures Up the Rio Tapajós

Tapajós National Forest

How to Get Here

Adventures in the Park

Guides

Amazônia National Park

How to Get Here

Itaituba

Adventures in the Park

Where to Stay & Eat

Language

Useful Phrases

Greetings & Salutations

Forming Questions

At the Restaurant

Basic Foods

Getting Around

At the Hotel

Introduction

Brazil is one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. Virtually a continent unto itself, this largest and most important country of South America is also the least understood. Travel here can be the experience of a lifetime, and yet most people don’t know where to begin in planning their trip.

Everyone knows about the Amazon and Carnival, and most have ideas about the sultry city of Rio de Janeiro. People may think of the tropical beaches, the soccer legends, the supermodels, or perhaps they have seen films that expose the hard reality in the favelas like City of God. Many people know about Brazilian coffee or the national drink cachaça, or the churrascaria steakhouses that are opening up around the world.

It seems that every day more and more people are getting to know the rich culture and the arts, the customs and the cuisine. The rhythms of Brazil, the great musicians and singers, and its dances like capoeira, catch everyone’s attention. But in spite of it all, the lyrics of this music and the inspiration for these arts remain an enigma for most of the world.

Unlocking these mysteries for you has been one of the greatest joys of my lifetime.

I had been living in Brazil for nearly a decade before I started writing this book. Working as a foreign correspondent and as the editor of a now defunct English-language newspaper called the Brazilian Post, I had a chance to study this country in detail. It was here that I met my wife and it is here that I was made an honorary citizen in a tiny town called Piancó, in the northeast of Brazil and the state of Paraíba.

As the plane descended the first time in São Paulo I recall being staggered by the size of the country and those endless city blocks. I realized that no matter what I had read, Brazil remained a blank page. The real identity of Brazil, its essence, somehow was different from what I thought I would find. The travel books I had read were hopelessly out of date or even misleading, and they all said the same thing. So I decided to write my own book from what I had seen with my own eyes, about the very best of what Brazil has to offer.

This does not necessarily mean the most expensive places or the best known, nor have I included every city or even every state. The idea all along was not to chart out every square inch, but to suggest ideas based on what visitors actually do – sightseeing, outdoor adventures, dining, shopping, and getting to know the locals. Every destination in this book has a compelling reason for you to visit – whether it be for the natural beauty, for the nightlife, the cuisine, the shopping, or most importantly for the culture.

On every page I have tried to bring you something unique.

In writing this book, I went wandering through cities to find the best restaurants and nightclubs, came face to face with a charging tapir, drifted through the Amazon after my boat ran out of fuel, peered over rusty cannons through cracks in fortress walls, went rappelling and scuba diving in a primordial cave, saw dinosaur tracks in the scalding desert, traveled to indigenous villages and went scrambling through abandoned mines.

Along the way I made some important discoveries. I spoke with locals to get their advice and tried to avoid the clichés that seem always to find their way into the travel literature. I discovered what was interesting and what was not, what was safe and what was not, and have tried to include something in this book for everyone, no matter what your age or interests.

Most of all I found confirmation for what I suspected all along – that Brazil is the most amazing country on the planet. I think that you will agree.

History

Indigenous groups, mainly Tupis and Guarnanis, lived here for as much as 30,000 years, according to some archeologists. We didn’t know much about the way they lived until the arrival of Europeans in 1500.

When Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral anchored his fleet of 13 ships at the coast in southern Bahia (in the Northeast Region) he discovered Brazil wood, a valuable resource used to make red dye. It that gave the country its name.

After the coast was mostly mapped out, in 1532 King João III of Portugal divided the country into 15 horizontal bands, called capitanias. Each was the responsibility of a different nobleman. The latter were more or less on their own to explore the lands and make them profitable, but most were unsuccessful. In 1549 João III decided to set up a Colonial government with a strong military and Jesuit presence in Salvador (in the Northeast Region).

At that point, under the governor Tomé de Sousa, colonization became more violent. The colonies produced sugar by use of indigenous and African slave labor, and warfare and disease began wiping out the indigenous population.

The Dutch took control in 1578 of most of the Northeast coast. In the Southeast the Brazilian settlers, many of them by now mestizos, continued to explore inland in mercenary groups called Bandeirantes, searching for wealth and slaves. By 1640 Portugal reconquered the Northeast and continued into the Amazon and the Southern Region. By 1670 gold was discovered, starting another phase of intense migration inland.

Empire & Gold

One after another, gold was found in the Southeast, the Center West and the Northeast. Brazil became the envy of the world. With the wealth came new ideas and, in 1778, a revolution called the Inconfidência started in Minas Gerais but was rapidly crushed.

In 1807 something unheard of happened. The Portuguese royal family fled Europe to escape Napoleon Bonaparte, and moved to Rio. Expanding the borders in a war with Argentina, they continued to face growing internal opposition. In 1822, the royals returned, and crown regent Pedro I declared Brazil independent. Rio de Janeiro became the capital of this new constitutional empire. After a flurry of hope among Brazilians tired of the old ways, the situation grew more and more chaotic, and Pedro I was forced to abdicate in 1831.

His young son, Pedro II, remained in Brazil and took power in 1839. Opposition began to rise in Europe against the slave trade – on which Brazil relied heavily. Meanwhile, more and more immigrants were pouring into Brazil from all over the world.

In 1865 Paraguay declared war and the Triple Alliance was formed between Brazil, Uruguay (by this time independent) and Argentina. In three years Paraguay was defeated and Brazil expanded into its territory. But the Empire was crumbling.

In 1887, Pedro II, plagued with scandal and losing power, finally fled to Europe. One year later his daughter, Princess Isabel, abolished slavery with the Áurea law and a short while later ended the monarchy and transferred power to a Republic.

Old & New Republics

The new government implemented major social changes, and it was a period of hope and inspiration for Brazil. The gold was long gone and agriculture became the source of Brazil’s wealth: coffee, rubber, and cocoa.

As the country began to industrialize, social problems became more apparent in the growing cities. In 1917 a huge labor strike paralyzed Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and radical new political parties were taking shape with socialist and anarchistic views.

By 1922, frustration with the corruption and inefficiency of the government led to military uprisings in the cities. The greatest of these was the Prestes Column, a group of lieutenants under the command of Luis Carlos Prestes, which marched through the entire country from 1924 to 1926, before fleeing into exile.

In 1929, the price of Brazil’s main product, coffee, fell drastically and the economy spiraled into ruin. Unemployment and poverty plagued the country, and the solution came in 1930 with the rise of a charismatic politician named Getúlio Vargas, below, who staged a revolution, declared a New Republic and began to rule with an iron hand.

The dictatorship made sweeping changes to help the urban working class, while at the same reducing the power of the unions that threatened it. The economy was departmentalized into separate political groups, which consolidated Vargas as the supreme authority and led to the emergence of Brazil as a global economic power.

Vargas admired the fascist state of Europe at the time, but was thrown into World War II on the side of the Allies after the Nazis sank Brazilian ships. When the war ended in 1945 and fascism was crushed, the dictatorship lost support and Vargas was forced to renounce.

From Dictatorship to Democracy

Under the new democratic government, in 1950 Vargas once again rose to power – this time as an elected President. Incredibly popular among some segments of society, he faced increasing opposition from more conservative officers in the military. On the brink of a military revolution to depose him, Vargas committed suicide in 1954.

Juscelino Kubitschek was elected President in 1955 with a new vision for Brazil. He moved the capital to Brasília (in the Center West Region) and oversaw more social reforms. This was a great period in Brazil, when music like bossa nova gained popularity around the world and the Brazilian soccer team won a dramatic World Cup victory in 1958.

Through successive presidents and a period of cultural growth, the economy continued to decline, and in 1964 the military seized power. This dictatorship was supposed to be temporary but remained in power until 1984, with periods of harsh social repression.

Though the dictatorship had ended, Brazil’s huge foreign debt led to constant crises for the next 10 years. In 1994 President Fernando Henrique Cardoso initiated reforms that almost overnight halted inflation of thousands of percentage points per year. This stability strengthened the young democracy and set the stage for economic prosperity.

In 2002, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, above, an opponent of Cardoso, became the first working-class leader. His government struck a balance between economic stability and concern for the poor, particularly in the Northeast, representing a significant milestone in the country’s history. He was re-elected in 2006.

Government & Economy

Brazil is a Federative Republic, with a democratic government and socialized medicine and education. The President and Federal Legislature (Senate and Chamber of Deputies) are elected. The Judiciary is independent. The state and municipal governments have elected executive and legislative bodies.

Despite an effort to streamline the government, it remains highly bureaucratic. For many Brazilians, the highest professional goal is to secure a public sector job, as these provide better wages and job security than the private sector. As most of the jobs are in the cities, every year more and more people move to the urban areas, creating huge strains on infrastructure and social services, and leading to the creation of shantytowns called favelas.

Brazil’s economy is one of the largest in the world and split more or less equally between agriculture and industry. The agricultural sector is the world’s largest producer of coffee, sugar, orange juice, beef, ethanol, and soybeans. The industrial segment is also very important as one of the largest producers of iron and steel, petroleum and other raw materials.

Brazil is a modern country – it is surprising to many first-time visitors just how modern. Brazil is known for its advanced technology such as ultra-deep-water oil drilling, high-tech medicines, a satellite base, a state-of-the-art jet manufacturer, advanced nuclear power plants, and, until recently, the world's longest free-standing bridge, as well as the world's largest hydroelectric dam. Its disproportionate size when compared to its neighbors is controversial, but Brazil has contributed greatly to regional cooperation and stability in recent years.

The economy has grown steadily since hyper-inflation was eradicated, and today Brazil is as prosperous as it has been in many years. Dependence on foreign debt continues to be a weakness for the economy. Wages remain low and, while health care and education are provided free to all citizens, both have major institutional problems.

Most of the former state-owned companies in the telecommunications, mining, transportation and electricity sectors were privatized in the past decade. This has led to greater availability of products and modernization of services, but some segments of society criticize the reduction in jobs and higher prices. While the press is free as a rule, the media is dominated by one large organization which depends heavily on paid advertising by the public sector.

Public security tends to be weak overall with less than 3% of GDP spent on the military and daunting institutional challenges for the police such as low salaries, corruption, and the lack of integration among police divisions. Private security is a huge business that dwarfs the public security sector.

Geography

Brazil is the largest country in all of Latin America, and covers just about half of the total land mass in South America. That makes it the fifth-largest country in the world after Canada, Russia, China and the United States.

Brazilians think of themselves as Americans, or South Americans, and consider people from the United States to be North Americans. The term gringo applies to any foreigner, is not meant to be offensive, and is used by just about everyone.

Brazil is mostly tropical, with the equator passing through the north and the Tropic of Capricorn passing through the southeast. Average annual temperatures vary around 28°C (82.4°F) in the north and 22°C (71.6°F) in the south. Information on local climates is included in each chapter.

Brazil borders Argentina and Uruguay to the South, Paraguay, Bolívia and Peru to the west, and Colombia, French Guiana, Suriname, Guiana and Venezuela to the north – that is to say, practically every other country in South America. Its border along the Amazon region was only very recently defined, with the help of satellite photos. The Atlantic Ocean forms the longest coastline in South America, extending some 7,367 km (or 4,578