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Brazil

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Brazil

The scale, size and diversity of Brazil takes your breath away. It has a long Atlantic coastline with a string of the brightest, most exciting port cities, full of life and dance and colour. Rio de Janeiro is a city of energy, beauty and sometimes shocking poverty. At Iguazu is the longest, widest, most spectacular falls I’ve ever seen, and at the heart of the country is the vast and mysterious Amazon rainforest. Our visits to some of the indigenous tribes gave Basil Pao a chance to capture unique and endangered ways of life.

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Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

A tribal welcome. The Yanomami greet their link with the outside world.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

At Demini airstrip. At least someone's interested in my holiday snaps.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

In my mosquito-proof hammock. I look as if I'm waiting to hatch out.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

In the forest, preparing for the dance.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

Palm spines through the nose and mouth, toucan feathers and red dye for the body.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

The women lead the procession out of the forest.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

The dancers circle the yano, the roundhouse. Women and men in separate groups.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

The warriors end up at the centre of the plaza for a hunting dance.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 1, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

The reward at the end of the dance. Huge quantities of fermented peach palm.

Day 1, Demini, Brazil

Day 2, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

Taking it easy. In foreground, manioc tubers.

Day 2, Demini, Brazil

Day 2, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

Bedtime story.

Day 2, Demini, Brazil

Day 2, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

With Davi, spokesman for the Yanomami around the world.

Day 2, Demini, Brazil

Day 2, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

Yanomami FC. Nowhere in Brazil is too remote for a soccer match.

Day 2, Demini, Brazil

Day 2, Demini, Roraima, Brazil

Last sight of the maloca, our home for the past two days.

Day 2, Demini, Brazil

Day 3, Rio Branco, Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil

The Rio Branco at Boa Vista. Recently built bridge at top of picture.

Day 3, Rio Branco, Boa Vista, Brazil

Day 4, Boa Vista, Amazonas, Brazil

Shops like this show the gold prospectors are still in business.

Day 4, Boa Vista, Brazil

Day 4, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

The village was spruced up for a soap-opera location. They've since moved on.

Day 4, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 4, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

Elias shows me the kiln in which he vulcanizes the rubber.

Day 4, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 4, The Ariaú Towers, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

Giant Indian hunter towers over a walkway at the Amazon's first eco-lodge.

Day 4, The Ariaú Towers, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 5, The Ariaú Towers, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

My tree house. The nearest I'll get to being Johnny Weissmuller.

Day 5, The Ariaú Towers, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 5, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

Swimming with the pink river dolphin. He's rather more interested in the sardine.

Day 5, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 5, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

Gabriel, the caboclo, takes me to meet his family.

Day 5, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 5, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

Gabriel's mother and father on their floating bar, hotel, shop, and satellite dish.

Day 5, Rio Negro, Brazil

Day 6, San Sebastián Square, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

'The Opening of the Ports'. Bronze statue reminds us that Manaus was once at the centre of international trade.

Day 6, San Sebastián Square, Manaus, Brazil

Day 6, Teatro Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Magnificent excess. The greatest auditorium in the Amazon. Steel from Glasgow, decoration from Italy.

Day 6, Teatro Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil

Day 6, Sambódromo de Manaus, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Elena from Plovdiv teaches the string section.

Day 6, Sambódromo de Manaus, Manaus, Brazil

Day 7, Santarém, Amazonas, Brazil

No trucks allowed on the pontoon, all cargo has to be hand-loaded.

Day 7, Santarém, Brazil

Day 7, Santarém, Amazonas, Brazil

The big squeeze. Amazon ferry boats wait for an opening at Santarém's congested terminal.

Day 7, Santarém, Brazil

Day 8, Fordlândia, Aveiro, Pará, Brazil

Fordlândia. Small-town America survives in the Amazon. Red fire hydrant, bottom left. Trees trained across to provide shade.

Day 8, Fordlândia, Aveiro, Brazil

Day 8, Fordlândia, Aveiro, Pará, Brazil

Workshop No. 3 in Fordlândia. Still in use. But only just.

Day 8, Fordlândia, Aveiro, Brazil

Day 9, Belém, Pará, Brazil

Unloading fruit on the waterfront at Belém. Turreted market building in the background.

Day 9, Belém, Brazil

Day 9, Mercado Ver-o-Peso, Belém, Pará, Brazil

Thiago talks big fish to Priscila and me.

Day 9, Mercado Ver-o-Peso, Belém, Brazil

Day 9, Mercado Ver-o-Peso, Belém, Pará, Brazil

Fresh produce isn't a problem in the Amazon delta. New arrivals from the fertile islands.

Day 9, Mercado Ver-o-Peso, Belém, Brazil

Day 10, Belém, Pará, Brazil

Gaby Amarantos, Queen of Technobrega, in one of her dressing rooms.

Day 10, Belém, Brazil

Day 11, Amazon Cello Choir, Belém, Pará, Brazil

Bringing music to the backwoods. Not everybody listens. But many do.

Day 11, Amazon Cello Choir, Belém, Brazil

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

Bird's eye view of the Wauja village as we approach its red-earth runway.

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

Metting the Wauja elders.

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

The dance of the Kagapa. All about catching fish.

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

Itsautaku. The village shaman.

Day 12, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

The morning bath and laundry combined.

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

The final touch to my manioc pancake.

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

The magnificent thatched houses.

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil

A glimpse of their ancestors. The Wauja watch slides from the Rondon expedition of 1924.

Day 13, Wauja Village, Upper Xingu River, Brazil

Day 14, Xingu, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Ox-bow lakes everywhere as the rivers wind slowly through the forest.

Day 14, Xingu, Brazil

Day 15, Brasília, Goiás, Brazil

With Dinho Ouro Preto in a VW Combi - part of his youth, now a piece of art.

Day 15, Brasília, Brazil

Day 15, Brasília, Goiás, Brazil

Visionary architecture. The atrium of the Royal Tulip Alvorada by Ruy Ohtake.

Day 15, Brasília, Brazil

Day 17, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Goiás, Brazil

The Ritual of the Waters. Tatiana instructs her followers.

Day 17, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil

Day 18, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Goiás, Brazil

The Supremo Tribunal Federal Building, seat of Brazil's Judiciary.

Day 18, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil

Day 18, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Goiás, Brazil

Beside Os Candangos, the memorial to the workers who built Brasília.

Day 18, Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil

Day 20, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, Brazil

Lencóis Maranhenses. A landscape like no other. A desert with lakes. For the lucky few who make it out here there are hundreds of natural swimming pools to choose from. And they're never quite the same from year to year.

Day 20, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil

Day 21, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

Bumba Meu Boi. Beneath balloons of green and pink (the colours of Floresta) the crowds squeeze in to watch the blessing of the bull.

Day 21, São Luís, Brazil

Day 21, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

The Godfather. Apolônio Melônio, ninety-two-year-old inspiration behind the Projeto Floresta Criativa.

Day 21, São Luís, Brazil

Day 21, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

For a poor community, the costumes, worn by young and old, are rich and beautifully made.

Day 21, São Luís, Brazil

Day 23, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

Low tide forces us to board the catamaran from the beach.

Day 23, São Luís, Brazil

Day 23, Alcântara, Maranhão, Brazil

On Calçada do Jacaré - Alligator Street.

Day 23, Alcântara, Brazil

Day 23, Alcântara, Maranhão, Brazil

In Alcântara's once-grand Praça da Matriz, flags flutter for the festivities to come. Among the many colonial buildings is a ruined stone church on the right and in front of it the limestone pelourinho, the pillory, where slaves were bought and sold.

Day 23, Alcântara, Brazil

Day 25, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

Nadir (left) doesn't just organize, she joins in.

Day 25, São Luís, Brazil

Day 25, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

The Rua Portugal in Old Town Sâo Luís and the Bumba Meu Boi festivities, part of a larger religious festival devoted to St John, are in full swing. Dressed in home-made costumes of emu feathers and palm leaves, performers from Floresta, a poor community in the suburbs, are acting out a two-hundred-year-old story.

Day 25, São Luís, Brazil

Day 25, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

The roots of Bumba Meu Boi are in rural Brazil, hence the preponderance of animal masks.

Day 25, São Luís, Brazil

Day 26, Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil

Looking out over the attractive and colourful centre of Old Town Olinda to the skyline of Recife, the city that grew to eclipse its neighbour.

Day 26, Olinda, Brazil

Day 27, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Street art by the river. The crab that is the symbol of the resurgent cultural life of Recife.

Day 27, Recife, Brazil

Day 28, Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil

Drinking like a fish. With graffiti artist Derlon Almeida beside a fine example of his work.

Day 28, Olinda, Brazil

Day 28, Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil

In Brazil, everybody dances. Band in the background. Englishman learns forró in the foreground.

Day 28, Olinda, Brazil

Day 30, Pega de Boi, Serrita, Pernambuco, Brazil

Weathered from the constant exposure to the sun, cowboys arrive for the Pega de Boi - 'Catch my Bull'.

Day 30, Pega de Boi, Serrita, Brazil

Day 30, Pega de Boi, Serrita, Pernambuco, Brazil

With Tiago Câncio, wearing his father's traditional leather hat, and his mother Helena. Behind us, the lethal cactus scrub the cowboys have to ride through.

Day 30, Pega de Boi, Serrita, Brazil

Day 31, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

A young Salvadorean paints the brightly coloured facades of the old town.

Day 31, Salvador, Brazil

Day 31, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Walking the cobbled streets of the Pelourinho, named after the pillory that stood here and where slaves were traded. Newly restored, the colonial buildings glow with fresh paint, and African drums beckon the tourists.

Day 31, Salvador, Brazil

Day 31, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Salvador, the biggest African city outside Africa. On the streets the women wear big smiles and even bigger Bahian dresses. Everyone's out to sell you something, in the nicest possible way.

Day 31, Salvador, Brazil

Day 32, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Drum master Pacote whips up a terrific morning of dance and percussion as students of the Escola Olodum fill the streets of old Salvador with seemingly inexhaustible noise and energy.

Day 32, Salvador, Brazil

Day 32, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Sunset at Santo Antonio Fort. The walls I'm leaning against are over four hundred years old. When it was built, in 1605, Salvador was the capital of Brazil and its flourishing trade in sugar, cotton and slaves had to be protected.

Day 32, Salvador, Brazil

Day 33, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Agility and poise are taught at the Academy on the top floor of the Mestre's house.

Day 33, Salvador, Brazil

Day 33, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Taking a breather at the window of the radio station - Voice of the Valley of Small Stones - after a gruelling interview with the Mestre.

Day 33, Salvador, Brazil

Day 33, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Mestre leads the Capoeira Academy, and hanger-on in background, through the favela to the big public demonstration.

Day 33, Salvador, Brazil

Day 34, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Fita ribbons, representing a mix of superstition and faith, are bought and hung on the church railings.

Day 34, Salvador, Brazil

Day 34, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The Candomblé ceremony begins.

Day 34, Salvador, Brazil

Day 34, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The Candomblé ceremony in full swing. A participant dances himself into an apparent hypnotic state, rolling around on the floor as if possessed.

Day 34, Salvador, Brazil

Day 35, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

With Dadá, the doyenne of Bahian cuisine, selecting fruit for the meal she's making today.

Day 35, Salvador, Brazil

Day 35, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Enjoying the rewards of our morning together. Superb moqueca and a lot of laughs. Very Bahian.

Day 35, Salvador, Brazil

Day 36, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Three men and a boat. With artist Bel Borba, centre, Malaca, and behind us the brightly coloured hull of a saveiro, one of the old wooden sailing boats they're trying to save.

Day 36, Salvador, Brazil

Day 36, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Sombra da Lua in full sail on All Saints' Bay. Salvador's skyline in the distance. Rich tower blocks to the right, Liberdade, settled by freed slaves, to the left.

Day 36, Salvador, Brazil

Day 37, All Saints' Bay, The Recôncavo, Bahia, Brazil

In the heart of the Recôncavo, the rich alluvial hinterland of All Saints' Bay, lie the twin towns of Cachoeira, in background, and São Félix. Their position at the lowest bridging point of the Paraguaçu made them prosperous.

Day 37, All Saints' Bay, The Recôncavo, Brazil

Day 37, Dannemann Cigar Factory, São Félix, Bahia, Brazil

I talk to the head of the company, Hans Leusen, on the factory floor.

Day 37, Dannemann Cigar Factory, São Félix, Brazil

Day 40, Serra do Cipó National Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Pedro Country. The restless inventor and engineer Pedro Sales has virtually taken over this picturesque headland to build and design his highly individual properties. All for his children, he says.

Day 40, Serra do Cipó National Park, Brazil

Day 40, Serra do Cipó National Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

José Branco, a farmer in these mountains all his life.

Day 40, Serra do Cipó National Park, Brazil

Day 41, Morro do Pilar, Serra do Cipó National Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

In a fire-ravaged forest, a palm frond shows the only sign of resistance.

Day 41, Morro do Pilar, Serra do Cipó National Park, Brazil

Day 41, Morro do Pilar, Serra do Cipó National Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

'Flick' Taylor brews up coffee for the crew. A lot to write about. The magical house in the forest is full of Flick's family furniture, shipped all the way from New Zealand.

Day 41, Morro do Pilar, Serra do Cipó National Park, Brazil

Day 42, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

At a sampling table, laid with bowls to test the consistency of the flavour, we both sip, hiss the air into our mouths and spit out. Of the two main species of coffee, Arabica and Robusta, it is clear which is Bruno's favourite.

Day 42, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Day 43, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Praça da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte. Modern glass box contrasts with neo-classical square.

Day 43, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Day 43, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The main square of Ouro Preto. The central statue is of Tiradentes ('the tooth-puller'), a national hero for leading an uprising against the Portuguese.

Day 43, Ouro Preto, Brazil

Day 44, The Mina da Passagem, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The Mina da Passagem. The railway line, and the tunnel entrance beyond.

Day 44, The Mina da Passagem, Ouro Preto, Brazil

Day 44, The Mina da Passagem, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

With my excellent guide Ícaro beside the shrine to Santa Bárbara.

Day 44, The Mina da Passagem, Ouro Preto, Brazil

Day 44, The Mina da Passagem, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The underground lake. Divers come here at weekends to explore the network of tunnels submerged beneath.

Day 44, The Mina da Passagem, Ouro Preto, Brazil

Day 45, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The price of iron ore. Mini Grand Canyons like this stud the rolling green landscape of Minas Gerais as trucks and diggers push hundreds of metres into the earth. The colours they reveal have their own beauty.

Day 45, Ouro Preto, Brazil

Day 46, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The world's most famous beach. Copacabana at the weekend. The uniform red parasols are an important part of its style.

Day 46, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 46, Gay Pride, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rainbow-coloured streamers and the longest flag I've ever seen mark the loud and lively progress of the procession. In 1990, only twenty-eight people were brave enough to march for Gay Pride. Today they estimate nearly a million have turned out.

Day 46, Gay Pride, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 47, Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Photo opportunity. With Bel at the Redentor, eighty years after it was unveiled. The statue is made of concrete with a soapstone finish.

Day 47, Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 48, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Marjorie, President of the Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals of Rio de Janeiro State, inside her office.

Day 48, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 50, Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Gonçalo Ferreira, champion of Cordel literature, declaims his 'Ode to a Book'.

Day 50, Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 50, Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Lapa Arches were built to carry water from the hill of Santa Teresa into the centre of Rio. Nowadays they carry a tramway.

Day 50, Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 51, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

With Priscilla Ann Goslin, author of How to be a Carioca. I ask her how Cariocans cope with rain. 'They evaporate from the street,' she tells me.

Day 51, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 51, Morro do Cantagalo , Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

At the Favela Surf Centre they make their own boards, for half the price they'd cost in shops.

Day 51, Morro do Cantagalo , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 51, Morro do Cantagalo , Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The surfers of Cantagalo set off for the beach.

Day 51, Morro do Cantagalo , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 51, Tabajaras Favela, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In Tabajaras the drug gang's HQ has been converted into a Community Centre. At an opening-day party there's music from a police band, an actor's troupe, and a visit from the BBC.

Day 51, Tabajaras Favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 52, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

On the Rio Metro. Small network, huge tunnels.

Day 52, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 54, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Some of BOPE's 470-man, six-woman crack squad, who spearhead the process of 'pacification' in high-crime favelas, prepare to go out on patrol from their hilltop base.

Day 54, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Giant graffiti on the wall of an abandoned warehouse in the old docks area, now finding new life as a cultural quarter.

Day 55, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

At the Fight for Peace gymnasium in Maré, a tough neighbourhood in Rio's Zona Norte. It was founded in 2000 by Englishman Luke Dowdney, talking to me whilst sparring goes on around us.

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Luke points out warring sections of the favela. His aim is to persuade them to fight with fists in the gym, not with guns on the streets.

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Bira, who came out to keep an eye on us. He was a bank robber who was shot in the back. Now he helps Fight for Peace talk youngsters out of crime.

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Telephone and electricity are taken off the public supply on leads. The clusters of leads are known as a gato, a cat. The local cat-man can connect you up.

Day 55, Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Complexo do Alemão. A big, sprawling, once dangerous neighbour- hood, in the process of pacification. Key to the improvements is a shiny new six-station cable car system that connects the disparate parts of the community, and helps police keep an eye on the streets.

Day 55, Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 55, Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

New look for the favela; Einstein on the walls of Knowledge Square.

Day 55, Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 57, Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Talking with Carolina Ferraz, soap star, between takes on the set of Avenida Brasil.

Day 57, Barra da Tijuca, Brazil

Day 58, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

With Dom João and Brazil's old royal family. Behind us the two princesses, Isabella and Leopoldina.

Day 58, Paraty, Brazil

Day 58, Mata Atlântica, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dom João, a keen environmentalist, walks me through the Atlantic rainforest.

Day 58, Mata Atlântica, Paraty, Brazil

Day 58, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Easter procession, figure of Christ borne aloft, moves through the streets of old Parati.

Day 58, Paraty, Brazil

Day 58, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

With my glass of catuaba at the end of the night.

Day 58, Paraty, Brazil

Day 59, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Good Friday morning. The stone-flagged streets of Parati have been washed by a high tide.

Day 59, Paraty, Brazil

Day 61, Embraer Factory, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

Engine assembly at Embraer.

Day 61, Embraer Factory, São José dos Campos, Brazil

Day 62, Embraer Factory, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

Felipe supervises new recruit.

Day 62, Embraer Factory, São José dos Campos, Brazil

Day 63, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

São Paulo skyline. Just one part of the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere.

Day 63, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 63, Grajaú, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

On a roof-top in Grajaú, Carolina Ferraz introduces me to Criolo - rapper, poet and composer - and his mother.

Day 63, Grajaú, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 63, Grajaú, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Musical Pagode da 27. Criolo sits in on a Sunday-night jam session in a Grajaú back street.

Day 63, Grajaú, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 64, Estre Ambiental Sanitary Landfill, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

All neat and tidy. The carefully drained, methane-extracted terraces of Estre's biggest landfill site.

Day 64, Estre Ambiental Sanitary Landfill, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 65, Liberdade, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

The streets of Liberdade neighbourhood in São Paulo.

Day 65, Liberdade, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 65, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

The pleasures of São Paulo. Plenty of bookstores.

Day 65, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 65, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

The Accidental President. Talking with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, FHC, Brazil's President for eight years.

Day 65, São Paulo, Brazil

Day 66, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil

Housing blocks form an unglamorous back-drop to the Santos training ground.

Day 66, Santos, Brazil

Day 66, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil

At Vila Belmiro, the stadium at which Pelé played for twenty years.

Day 66, Santos, Brazil

Day 69, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil

The Serra Verde Express crosses a bridge on the line through the mountains.

Day 69, Curitiba, Brazil

Day 70, Blumenau, Paraná, Brazil

The Serra Verde Express crosses a bridge on the line through the mountains.

Day 70, Blumenau, Brazil

Day 71, Pomerode, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Hanna Lora in her kitchen.

Day 71, Pomerode, Brazil

Day 71, Pomerode, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Riding sidecar on the Choppmotorrad, guarding fifty litres of Pilsner.

Day 71, Pomerode, Brazil

Day 71, Pomerode, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Young Brazilians celebrate their German heritage.

Day 71, Pomerode, Brazil

Day 72, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Dramatic escarpment on the edge of Brazil's high plateau.

Day 72, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 72, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

With Vespasiano, carrying the traditional curved horn - pre-mobile phone cowboy communication.

Day 72, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 72, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Young calf is lassoed, ready for antiseptic to be applied where the jaguar has attacked.

Day 72, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 72, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

With Vespasiano and Alex, taking a drink of mate in one of the wetland lagoons.

Day 72, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 72, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Trying my hand at piranha-fishing with the immensely patient Juan.

Day 72, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 73, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Two hundred or more bird species live around Barra Mansa. Pollianna takes me on a walk in the wetland.

Day 73, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 73, The Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Last lunch in the Pantanal with Guilherme and Pollianna.

Day 73, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 74, The Pantanal, Paraná, Brazil

Where Brazil, on the left, meets Argentina, on the right, water plunges over a rim nearly two miles long, making the Iguaçu Falls the largest waterfall on earth.

Day 74, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 74, The Pantanal, Paraná, Brazil

The crazy ones. Tourists pay good money to get very wet indeed.

Day 74, The Pantanal, Brazil

Day 74, The Pantanal, Paraná, Brazil

Journey's end. Taking in the sheer power of the falls.

Day 74, The Pantanal, Brazil

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