There's Rio, of course, "a lovely greatheart" of a city, as Jan Morris has written. But Brazil is vast and its Amazonian rainforests, its Pantanal wilderness (the greatest wildlife bonanza outside of Africa), and its swirling, sensuous mix of cultures are equally exuberant celebrations of nature and of life.

• TOTAL AREA: 8,511,965 sq km

• LAND AREA: 8,456,510 sq km

• WATER AREA: 55,455 sq km

• POPULATION: 188,078,227

• RELIGIONS: Roman Catholic (nominal) 73.6%, Protestant 15.4%, Spiritualist 1.3%, Bantu/voodoo 0.3%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.2%, none 7.4%

• LANGUAGES: Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French

• GOVERNMENT TYPE: Federative Republic

• CAPITAL CITY: Brasilia

• OFFICIAL CURRENCY: real (BRL)

• TIME ZONE: GMT/UTC +7