Human geography The best thing about Brazil has to be carnival. This starts at midnight on the Friday before Ash Wednesday and lasts for five days. That's my kind of party! I was in Rio de Janeiro for carnival but it is celebrated all over the country. People dance to lots of different music including samba, bossa nova and lambada. At the end of the five days I collapsed on the beaches at Ipanema and Copacabana (ask your teacher to sing about them!) Seven million people live between the sea and the mountains in Rio and a third of them live in favelas (slums). Favelas are common in the industrialised south of Brazil. Poor people who live in them have few schools, doctors and jobs, and drugs and violence are common. In northern Brazil most people are poor farmers, but they suffer from many of the same problems. Only 20% of people in rural areas can get safe water to drink. 55 million people live on £48 or less a month and one in 16 children die before the age of five. Despite what most people think, Rio is not the capital of Brazil, Brasilia is. The city was built in three years and looks good, but it is deadly boring and full of business people who go somewhere more exciting at weekends. I escaped fast. The people who live in Brazil are descended from a real mix of ethnic groups including Portuguese colonisers, native Indians and African slaves. 70% of people in Brazil are Roman Catholic although some follow traditional beliefs as well. The main language is Portuguese although it sounds very different to how people speak in Portugal and there are several regional variations. Some people also speak Spanish, English and French.