Brazil is a country the size of a continent. It’s incredibly diverse in terms of culture, climate and ethnic mix, but sadly most foreigners probably think of it as one big homogenous kingdom of football, samba, beaches and carnival.

For the friends and family following my journey, I wanted to emphasise that although I’ve visited the country before, the Brazil I see this time in the North-East is going to be a very different Brazil to the one I saw last time in the South-East.

Leaving aside Brazil’s cultural diversity, I also wanted to point out that, in terms of economic development, this is a country of extremes. In very general terms, the North is poor while the South is rich.

This article is my terrible and (probably quite offensive!) attempt to give a ‘flavour’ of what each of the different areas are like.

DISCLAIMER: Of course, what follows is stereotyping…