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Maranhao is where the separate but interlinked worlds of the Northeast and Amazonia collide. Although classed as a Northeastern state by Brazilians, its climate, landscape, history and capital of Sao Luis are all amazonico rather than nordestino. Maranhao is the only state in the Northeast which more people migrate to than emigrate from. Drought is not a problem here; the climate is equatorial - humid, hot and very wet indeed. The rainy season peaks from January to April, but most months it rains at least a little, and usually a lot - although only in concentrated, refreshing bouts for most of the year. Maranhao has more fertile, well-watered land than the rest of the Northeast put together. Much of it is flat, the east and north covered with palm forest, and the centre and west riddled, in typical Amazonian fashion, with large rivers and fertile riverine plains - one of the main rice-producing areas of Brazil. Further west begins the tropical forest and savanna of Amazonia proper, as you hit the eastern boundary of the largest river basin in the world. The coast also changes character: the enormous beaches give way, from Sao Luis westwards, to a bewildering jumble of creeks, river estuaries, mangrove swamps and small islands, interspersed with some of the most remote beaches in Brazil - almost five hundred kilometres of largely roadless coastline with towns and villages accessible only from the sea. Like most zones of geographical transition, Maranhao also marks a historical and cultural divide. The people are a striking contrast to the ethnic uniformity of the states immediately to the east: here blacks, Indians and Europeans form one of the richest cultural stews to be found in Brazil. Catch the great popular festival of Bumba-meu-boi in June and you'll get some idea of how different from the rest of the Northeast Maranhao really is. The main centres of population in the state are on and around the island of Sao Luis, and deep in the interior along the banks of the Rio Tocantins , a tributary of the Amazon but a mighty river in its own right. The contrast between the two regions could hardly be more stark. Only thirty years ago the Rio Tocantins was the boundary between Brazil and largely unknown Indian country. Today, as people flood into eastern Amazonia, Imperatriz , with 295,000 inhabitants, is the second city of the state, and even dozy, historic Sao Luis, founded in 1612, has been transformed by docks and factories linked to the huge development projects of eastern Amazonia - the subject of much international controversy.
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