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The Northeast ( nordeste) of Brazil covers an immense area and features a variety of climates and scenery, from the dense equatorial forests of western Maranhao, only 200km from the mouth of the Amazon, to the parched interior of Bahia, some 2000km to the south. It takes in all or part of the nine states of Maranhao, Piaui, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, which together form roughly a fifth of Brazil's land area and have a combined population of 36 million. When nordestinos living outside the region are included, they make up about a third of Brazil's total population. Within Brazil, the Northeast is notorious for its poverty, and it has been described as the largest concentration of poor people in the Americas. Yet it's also one of the most rewarding areas of Brazil to visit, with a special identity and culture nurtured by fierce regional loyalties, shared by rich and poor alike. You'll come across echoes of Northeastern culture all over Brazil - in the Amazon highway towns or the favelas of Rio and Sao Paulo - engendered by the millions of Northeasterners who migrate out of the region. The Northeast possesses an identity forged by geographical contrasts, as most of the Northeastern states have three distinct areas. First is the flat coastal strip, the zona da mata , which literally means "forest zone". Little, apart from the name, is now left of the coastal jungle which greeted the first European settlers in the sixteenth century: at the same time as they marvelled at its beauty they cut it down and planted sugar cane, taking advantage of the heavy tropical rains and rich soils. It was on the coast that the first towns and cities of the Northeast grew up - not for nothing are all the region's state capitals, save one, coastal cities - and to this day the coastal strip is by far the most thickly populated part of the Northeast. Unfortunately, this fertile coastal belt is rather narrow, and nowhere does it extend inland for more than a hundred kilometres. It gives way to an intermediate area, the agreste , where hills rear up into rocky mountain ranges, and the lush, tropical vegetation of the coast is gradually replaced by highland scrub and cactus. Finally comes the sertao , the vast semi-arid interior that covers more than three-quarters of the Northeast but houses a relatively small proportion of its population. The soils here are poor, the rainfall is irregular, and only the hardy can scrabble a living out of the harsh landscape. The contrast between the coast and the interior is the most striking thing about the region. You could have a fascinating time in the Northeast without ever leaving the zona da mata, but unless you make at least one foray into the interior you'll only get a partial view of what is the most varied region in Brazil. It is not just a difference in the way the country looks. Much of it also has to do with the racial mix, a product of the region's economic history. Blacks were imported to work on the coastal sugar plantations, and relatively few of them made it into the interior. The Northeast has the largest concentration of black people in Brazil, but most of them still live either on or near the coast, concentrated around Salvador , Recife and Sao Luis , where African influences are very obvious - in the cuisine, music and religion. In the sertao, though, Portuguese and Indian influences predominate in both popular culture and racial ancestry. As far as specific attractions go, the region has a lot to offer. The coastline is over two thousand kilometres of practically unbroken beach, much of it just as you imagine tropical beaches to be: white sands, blue sea, palm trees - the stuff advertising campaigns are made of. The colonial heritage survives in the Baroque churches and cobbled streets of Salvador, Olinda and Sao Luis, often side by side with the modern Brazilian mix of skyscrapers and shantytowns. And in Salvador and Recife, with populations of around two million each, the Northeast has two of Brazil's great cities . Head inland , and the bustling market towns of the agreste and the enormous jagged landscapes of the sertao more than repay the journeys. But above all, in both city and countryside, there's the force of a richly diverse popular culture which you will find reflected not only in arts and crafts, but in the texture of everyday life. The Brazilian caricature of frenzied partying and football worship fits this region better than most.
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