Living
Edward Finney
Oct 7 2008

Ready for a new travel experience? In this vast land called Brazil you can find something for everyone´s taste: from tropical beaches, immense rain forests, diverse flora and fauna, sofisticated cities, desert, and plains. . . . . . . . it is all here for your pleasure.

Anyone who has travelled this vast land called Brazil realizes that it is a land rich in diversity and cultural differences. From the Amazon river and rain forest in the North, to the magnificant beaches of the Northeast, to the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro, and the wild life in the vast swamp called the Pantanal in the West. Not only is the geography diverse, but the people and cultural life is vastly difference as can be expected in a country of this size.

Southern Brazil seems like an other country from Northeastern Brazil. In the south it is a temperate climate and the NE is tropical. The population in the south is of a European stock and the NE is not. In the south, industry reins, vast agricultural lands dominate, banking, electronics, shipping and export are important phases of the life there. In the Northeast, primitive by southern standards, tourism dominates because of the superlative beaches and tropical seaside cities. While the southerners are industrious, educated and better off than their Northeastern compatriots, the NE is a laid back environment where the àmanha`(tomorrow) attitude dominates and life is for today. The south is where you live, the NE is where you enjoy.

The South was populated by Europeans. . . . . Italians, Germans, and Poles predominate but most European countries are represented. With them they brought their cultures and work ethic and made this reagion economically successful. Contrary to this, the Northeast was populated by Blacks, Indians and Portuguese. Northeastern Brasil was based on a sugar plantation culture and slaves from Africa provided the work force. The Dutch, English and French tried to make inroads here but were not successful. Portugal became the dominating force and eventually populated the reagion, owning all the plantations. The indians were indigenous and populated both the interior and coastal reagions. Eventually, the three populations merged, forming a beautiful race of people that most people think of as BRAZILIANS. A white population also resides here but are in the minority, although they usually are the educated upper class and control most businesses. The

mulatinhos (mixed race), are the dominating class in numbers and run the small businesses and most if not all the the labor intensive jobs.

The Amazon reagion is sparsely populated, mostly by indigenous indian and people from the Northeast interior looking for a better life. Cities are few and far between. Transportation is by boat and bartering is the currency of choice. The exception to this is Manaus, a city 1000 miles up the Amazon. To open up the Amazon reagion to industry, the government made Manaus a duty free zone for importation of parts for assembly, especially electronics. Manaus soon became a large bustling manufacturing city employing 1000`s of people from all over Brazil. Decades later, it is still a major manufacturing city providing motorcycles, electronic equipment and applicances. It was a successful government plan that lived up to expectations.

The Pantanal, a vast swamp in western Brazil is one of the world´s largest concentration of fauna. . . . . . .during the dry season, it is a rolling land with many rivers alive with flora and fauna. When the rain begins, the Parana river that eventually goes to the Rio del la Plata and the sea can´t keep up with the flooding and the entire Pantanal region goes underwater except for the hill tops which become islands filled with animals escaping the flooding. Nervous rabbits live side by side with alligators, always keeping an eye on the buzzards in the trees. The concentration of animals is enormous and closeup observation is a rare treat provided by many local hotels and river craft.

To this expatriot American who first settled in this land called Brazil many years ago, the area of choice is the northeast. . . .the City of João Pessoa on the eastern most point of South America. The relaxed life style, magnificant beachs, very cold Brazilian beer and the beautiful mulatinas keep me here. I just can´t seem to find a better place to go.