Brazil with Michael Palin

Michael Palin starts his visit of Brazil, the last subcontinent he never visited, in the populous North east, where its colonial history started. It remains the most African and racially mixed part of the country, which absorbed 40% of the African slave export. The plantations having faded, it sunk in the ranking of riches. Michael enjoys the exuberant, public lifestyle, especially the beach-culture and exotic cooking, and discusses the Brazilian soul as well as differences within the huge country.

Michael proceeds to Brazil's young interior, the Amazon jungle states, land of pioneers and promising future, but harsh present. He visits two native tribes, the famous Yanomani, who grew wisely weary of the Western world which nearly wiped them out, and the more receptive Wauja, who still maintain an even more exotic, fairly authentic way of life. It's still threatened , like their forest environment, by the lure of mineral and agricultural gain for the Portoguese speaking majority, whose authorities take no more account of indigenous interests then foreign pressures achieves. The colonial past includes great riches, either continuing or lost, and gruesome costs. The people are very adventurous and hedonistic, notably 'Amazon' women.

Palin starts this leg of the journey in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais. He visits an old gold mine once owned by the British, before going to see a vast opencast iron ore mine. He also visits the state capital Belo Horizonte, Brazils 6th largest city. From Minas, Palin goes down to Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil with a population six and half million.

Moving on to the deep south, Michael finds many surprises as he encounters the rich diversity of the more European and Asian cultures that have created a new melting pot in the deep south of Brazil.