Photo: Aerial view of Rio de Janeiro and Christ the Redeemer statue

From its perch atop Corcovado Mountain, "Christ the Redeemer" oversees Rio de Janeiro.

Photograph by Christian Heeb

If life is a beach, Brazil is its headquarters. • Its first overseas visitors, from Portugal, wisely dedicated their attention to the glorious coastline, ignoring the jungly interior. • It is a big place, larger by far than the United States, claiming tenancy rights in most of the eastern half of South America. • Claiming more than 160 million souls, it has almost as many citizens as the rest of the continent’s other countries combined. • A melting pot of nearly countless cultures and races, with a stunning array of natural abundance in a landscape of unimaginable diversity.

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