Statistics tell us one story of Brazil: It is the world's fifth-largest country and South America's largest by far, and it is an anomaly in being the only Portuguese-speaking nation on that continent.
Brazil is home to the largest tropical forest on Earth and, just pipped by the Nile, the second-longest river, the 6,570-km Amazon — which is by far the world's largest in terms of total discharge and accounts for around a fifth of the planet's total river flow.
Brazil was named after its first export, brasil a red dye made from a tree (and perhaps the origin of my own name). The country now conjures images ranging from those of the industrial and agricultural powerhouse it has become, to ones of costumed carnival revelers, scantily clad girls on bright sandy beaches and the seemingly endless horizons of the Amazon rain forest.