The states forming the South of Brazil - Paraná ,
Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul - are generally
considered to be the most developed part of the country. The
smallest of Brazil's regions, the South maintains an economic
influence completely out of proportion to its size. This is largely
the result of two factors: the first is an agrarian structure that,
to a great extent, is based on highly efficient small and
medium-sized units; and the second is the economically over-active
population which produces a per capita output considerably higher
than the national average. With little of the widespread poverty
found elsewhere in the country, Brazilians tend to dismiss the
South as being a region that has more in common with Europe or the
United States than with South America.
Superficially, at least, this view has much going for it. The
inhabitants are largely of European origin, anyway, and live in
well-ordered cities where there's little of the obvious squalor
prevalent elsewhere. Beneath the tranquil setting, however, there
are tensions: due to land shortages people are constantly forced to
move vast distances - as far away as Acre in the western Amazon -
to avoid being turned into mere day-labourers, and favelas
are an increasingly common sight in Curitiba, Porto Alegre and the
other large cities of the South. From time to time these tensions
explode as landless peasants invade the huge, under-used
latifúndios found in the west and south of the region, and
it is no coincidence that it was here that the Landless Movement
(the MST) first emerged.
For the tourist, though, the region offers much that's
attractive. The coast has a subtropical climate that in the
summer months (November to March) attracts people who want to avoid
the oppressive heat of northern resorts, and a vegetation and
atmosphere that feel more Mediterranean than Brazilian. Much of the
Paranaense coast is still unspoilt by the ravages of mass tourism,
and building development is virtually forbidden on the beautiful
islands of the Bay of Paranaguá . By way of contrast,
tourists have encroached along Santa Catarina's coast, but only a
few places, such as Balneário Camburiú , have been allowed
to develop into a concrete jungle. Otherwise, resorts such as most
of those on the Ilha de Santa Catarina around
Florianópolis remain small and do not seriously detract from
the region's natural beauty.
The interior is even less frequently visited. Much of it
is mountainous, the home of people whose way of life seems to have
altered little since the arrival of the European pioneers last
century. Cities in the interior that were founded by Germans (such
as Blumenau in Santa Catarina), Italians ( Caxias do
Sul in Rio Grande do Sul) and Ukrainians ( Prudentópolis
in Paraná) have lost much of their former ethnic character, but
only short distances from them are villages and hamlets where time
appears to have stood still. The highland areas between
Lages and Vacaria , and the grasslands of southern
and western Rio Grande do Sul, are largely given over to vast
cattle ranches, where the modern gaúchos keep alive many of
the skills of their forebears.
Travelling around the South is generally easy, and there's a
fine road network. Most north-south buses stick to
the road running near the coast, but it's easy to devise routes
passing through the interior, perhaps taking in the Jesuit ruins of
São Miguel or the spectacular Iguaçu waterfalls.