Brazil:

One of the largest countries in the world, Brazil certainly has plenty to see-the Amazon and Iguazu falls come to mind-but more than anything it's the Brazilian passion for life, epitomised in Rio's Carnival celebrations, that will make you fall in love and want to return again.

Did you know?

• Brazil is the world's fifth biggest country. It covers an area much larger than Western Europe, and is slightly bigger than the United States excluding Alaska.
• Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in South America.+ It is estimated that Brazil contains greater biodiversity than any other country on Earth. The rivers of the Amazon region, for example, are home to more than 1,500 different species of fish.
• The annual carnival in Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia, is the world's biggest street party, attracting around 2 million people (including an average of 800,000 Brazilian and foreign tourists). The music is provided by mobile sound systems (trios elétricos) and over a hundred parade groups (blocos).
• The city of Rio de Janeiro throws a New Year's Eve party that is probably the biggest – and arguably the most spectacular – in the world. Around two million people, all of them dressed at least partly in white (a popular tradition adopted from Afro-Brazilian religion), congregate on the huge crescent-shaped expanse of Copacabana beach to watch a midnight firework display.
• Rio also gets into the record books with its Christmas festivities: the city's 82-metre high artificial Christmas tree (a conical metal framework covered in lights), which floats in the middle of Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon near Ipanema beach, is the biggest of its kind in the world.
• Brazil shares a border with every other country in South America apart from Ecuador and Chile – eleven in total – and has lived in peace with all of them for almost 140 years. (The last South American war involving Brazil was the conflict between Paraguay and the 'Triple Alliance' in the 1860s.)
• Against a backdrop of rising concerns about climate change and declining oil reserves, Brazil has become a pioneer in the production of ethanol (produced from sugarcane) and other biofuels. More than three-quarters of the automobiles sold in Brazil have flex-fuel engines, capable of running on petrol, ethanol, or a mixture of the two. Biofuel can be produced from castor beans, oil palms, sunflowers, babaçu nuts, peanuts, jatropha and soya.

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