Brazil: the facts

It's the start of my Travel Project and I'm excited to kick it off with Brazil. I'm starting the week with some basic facts everyone should know. You know, to look smart at dinner parties and general knowledge quizzes.

Firstly, Brazil is huge! With over 8 million km^2,  it hogs most of South America and is the fifth largest state world wide. Maybe that's why it's cheeky enough to be the only Portuguese speaking country on the continent.? Or it could be the centuries of Portuguese colonialism.
Things have been rocky since independence almost 90 years ago, but now Brazil has their first female president (yay!) and reminds people of cocktails and bikinis, not military dictatorship.

Brazil is all about carnival, culture and a coast line that goes on forever. It has beaches, the Amazon and the second longest river in the world. Clearly a stunning place for nature lovers.
It's also a country struggling with deforestation, severe human trafficking and one of the most unequal economies in the world. This is definitely a great place to go with a volunteering agency and help out.

This was just the meet-and-greet, but tomorrow I'll start looking at the tourist-y part of this monster of a country.
Have you been to Brazil?