Michael Palin visits Brazil for the very first time, travelling from the lost world of Amazonia to the buzzing metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, to meet the people and visit the places that shape this nation. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world - both in terms of population and geography. Home to 192 million people, it's a mix of races, religions, sophistication, wildness, wealth, poverty and unexplored wilderness.
The country is considered one of the rising global superpowers - less scary than China, less authoritarian than Russia and less chaotic than India - with vast national resources, a burgeoning industrial base and a strong currency that make it the envy of all.
He starts his journey in the north, in the remote mountains and forests on the border with Venezuela, and finishes in the south at the legendary Iguacau Falls. He travels by river-boat, float-plane and foot to visit tribes deep in the jungle, samples life in the agricultural and mining heartland of Brazil, experiences the modernism of Brasi´lia and the heady mix of Rio de Janeiro, and ventures into the favelas.
He travels down the north-east coast with its African-inspired culture; to Sa~o Lui´s; Recife and Salvador, where he is swept up in Candomble´. He heads to Sa~o Paulo, where the super-rich commute by helicopter; tastes German beer served from a motorcycle sidecar and tries his hand at being a cowboy before journey's end beneath one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world.
