Arrived in Brazil this afternoon and we’ll spend the next few nights in Porto Alegre, the largest city in Rio Grande de Sul, the southern most state of Brazil. Just as in Argentina and Uruguay, we see evidence of the Europeans leaving their mark on this part of the world with nearly all the locals looking like their Italian, German, and Spanish forebears. Here in Porto Alegre where many Germans arrived, blue eyed blonde Brazilians roam the streets and the light hair color isn’t from a bottle.

Further north in Brazil, which we’ll miss, unfortunately, as we’ll drive the west coast of South America instead, is where the Portuguese, from the mid-1500s, brought West Africans to work as slaves. The darker Brazilians have an entirely different culture, food et al. than their southern brothers and sisters. As South America’s largest country geographically, Brazil claims 150 million people. Diversity and differences among the people are countless.