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"If Paradise could be found anywhere on Earth, it wouldn't be far from this country!"
Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his name to the Americas, describing Brazil

Capital: Brasilia
Area: 8,511,996 kmē, or half of South America. Five large administrative regions: North, Northeast, Center-West, Southeast and the South, subdivided into 26 states and one federal district.

Population
161.8 million inhabitants, 63% of whom live in the Southeast and the South. Brazil is the sixth most populous country on the planet but has one of the least population densities with only 15 inhabitants per square kilometre. The majority of Brazilians are concentrated along the coast and in villages. São Paolo has 17 million inhabitants, with Rio holding more than 10 million people.

Currency: the réal

Official Language: Portuguese

Principal Religion: Roman Catholicism (90%)

Other Religions, Beliefs and Forms of Worship
While Brazil may be home to the largest Catholic community in the world, it still finds room for a wide variety of beliefs and religious influences. The primary indigenous people have left the imprint of animism, dominated by the shaman or witch doctor, master of magic and religious ceremony. The African cults are represented by the candomblé, which is mainly practiced in the Bahia state. This form of belief is celebrated in the terreiros – a type of small parish or assembly hall – and perpetuates the African traditions of worshipping various gods believed to be found in nature: storms, rivers, forests, the sea and the like. Various other syncretisms add to these principal forms of worship, such as umbada or white magic which combines candomblé, spiritualism, and quimbada or black magic whose practice of sacrifice has been outlawed.

Political System: Constitutional democracy

Head of State: Mr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President re-elected in October 1998

Landmark Dates
April 22, 1500: Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral discovers Brazil.
1822: Brazil declares its independence.
1888: Slavery is abolished.
1889: The Republic is proclaimed.
April 1, 1964: Military coup d'état.
1985: Return to civilian democracy after twenty years dictatorship.

GDP: USD 804 billion

Resources: mineral extraction and processing, automobile industries, soya, coffee, sugar cane, citrus fruits, wood pulp and cellulose, pork and beef

A Glimpse of the Wildlife
The wealth of Brazilian fauna and flora is breathtaking. The Amazonian rainforest hides nearly 15,000 different species of animals, of which many have not yet been classified. Primates, amphibians, plants, reptiles, felines, birds, butterflies, insects...it would be almost impossible to catalogue the infinite diversity of animal and plant life in the country. The Pantanal swamps are home to more than 270 different species of birds, including the famous tuiuiu or scarlet-throated Jabiru stork, which has become the region's symbol. But there are also giant otters, anacondas, big cats like the jaguar and the ocelot, a multitude of caimans and black howler monkeys, not forgetting the capybara which, at 60 kilos, is the biggest rodent the world has yet seen, and the jacana swamp-wading bird, partial to eating piranha fish. There are also 1,800 different species of butterfly which exist alongside the 200 varieties of mosquito.

— Courtesy of Elf Authentic Adventure Race


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