Let me just say this straight: I love Brazil. It has vaulted into lofty Top 5 status for me. My love was unrequited because in return Brazil was mostly ambivalent about me, but that's OK. I spent three solid months, effortlessly, mostly staying along the coast from Recife in the Northeast down to Sao Paulo and then west to Foz de Iguacu. I arrived hardly knowing a thing about Brazil and left hardly knowing a thing, but was very impressed anyway--and it won't stop me from generalizing, as you will soon see.

I wasn't as adventurous with the camera as I normally am for some reason. I am adding more text in a weak attempt to compensate. The photos are in chronological order, but the text doesn't necessarily match.

Sometimes I stayed with friends and CouchSurfing hosts, but I am afraid to hurt someone's feelings by not having their photo here, so I decided to hurt everyone's feelings equally and not include anyone's photo.

Here is a pop-out map of my route showing the names of the states as I descended. Look at how little I really saw, and I thought I covered a lot of ground. Brazil is huge.

(How can I make this page using a Brazilian flag as a background?)