After the impressive Iguazú waterfalls, I headed to Rio, to spend more time in Brazil. I liked Brazil from the first day on. Very colourful country, loud music and lots of smiles everywhere, full of life! Although I had seen only the south part of the country, but that I really loved.

I spent a couple days in Rio de Janeiro, the crowded ex-capital of Brazil, which thanks to its stunning location has a great atmosphere. It was built at the feet of jungle-covered mountains and owes 40 km long sandy beach. The panorama of the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer and of the Sugar Loaf Mountain is unique.
Rio is famous for its carnival. From the 1720s onwards carnival is held annually in February, where millions of people gather on the streets to see this parade heated by the rhythm of the samba. This is also when the best samba schools’ dancers compete.

I liked to spend a few days in the oceanfront Paraty because of its atmosphere and its people. Paraty is a small town, full of colourful art shops, flowers, and narrow streets, one of the masterpieces of Portuguese colonial architecture. It is situated in the immediate neighbourhood of rain forests, beaches and islands. So after the city experiences I enjoyed the silky water of the ocean and tried never heard fruits, of which I shared one with a capuchin monkey.

Brazil’s nature is really exotic, the plants and also the animals. Once I stepped out of the house and saw a hummingbird, they are really small! Loved the smell, the intense scent of flowers and the pretty warm climate (the lowest temperature at night was about 23°C) and the people.
Brazilian people are very diverse. Its reason lies on the fact that Portuguese people discovered Brazil in 1500 and after colonizing it, soon they brought black slaves from West Africa to the sugar cane- and coffee plantations to work. After 1888, when the slave trade ceased, many people immigrated to - in the meantime became independent - Brazil (mainly Italians, Germans, Japanese, Spaniards, Jews, Eastern Europeans and Middle Easterners).
Brazil is the fifth largest country (it makes up almost half of the South American continent) in the world and the most populous nation in Latin America; nearly 200 hundred million people live here.