Figure 1.--The photo was taken in the Brazilian Sertão--meaning 'hinterland'. It is inland from the coast, .the largest of the four sub-regions of Northeastern Brazil. The Sertão is basically what Australians call the Outback. It is an area of scrubby upland forest called a 'caatingas'. It is an economically poor region of the country, celebrated in Brazilian culture and folklore--an area populated by ranchers, outlaws, gold and diamond prospectors, maroon slave communities, pilgrims, prophets, messiahs, and many other colorful groups.
Brazil is by far the largest country in Latin America. About half of South America in area and population is Brazil. The most prominant geographic feature of Brazil is the Amazon River and basin and the incredable rainforest it supports as well as vast ammounts oxygen. The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the world and the source of vast volumes of freshwater. It accounts for one-fifth of the world's total river flow. Brazil in the east faces the Atlantic Ocean, primarily the South Atlantic. There are 4,600 miles (7,400 km) of Atlantic coastline. The country has more than 9,750 miles (15,700 km) of inland borders with each South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil is a vast country, stretching some 2,700 miles (4,350 km) from north to south and from east to west to form a kind of rough triangle. Within that triangle there are tropical and subtropical terraine, including wetlands, savannas, plateaus, and low mountains. Brazil contains most of the Amazon River basin. The Amazon is the world�s largest river system by volume and creates the world's most-important virgin rainforest. The country is unique among the world's largest countries, not only because of the Amazon. It contains no desert, high-mountain, or arctic environments. While there is no desert, the northeast is very arid. The Andes only a few miles to the west, however, is wear the Amazon rises and play a major role in the creation of the Amazon and its rainforest environment. Brazil is rich in natural resources. These resources and climate supporting a range of troical agriculture (sugar, rubber, coffee, etc.) have played a major role in uts economy. The Amazonian rain forest in particular involved Brazil in important environmental issues like climate change.
