Diving Brazil
Brazil has over 4,600 miles of coastline making the ability to do some great diving effortless. There are several areas throughout Brazil that offer the best diving: Recife, Fernando de Noronha, Salvador Bahia, Abrolhos, and Pantanal and Bonito.
The Recife area offers unique diving experiences. Recife means “reef” and because of many shipwrecks on its reefs, there is excellent wreck diving. The Atlantic Brazilian Current makes this a great area for tropical and pelagic fish. Twelve shipwrecks lie off the coast in warm, clear waters exhibiting a wealth of fish and corals, with excellent visibility and warm temperatures of 78 ºF degrees. War galleons, steamships, tugs and barges date from 1887 to 1986.
Fernando de Noronha, the island of the forbidden, lies 200 miles off the northeastern coast and is a mountainous archipelago made up of 21 islands. This National Marine Sanctuary is a diving paradise. Due to its open ocean location, this area provides pelagic fish and ocean mammals and dive sites including shipwrecks, canyons, amazing volcanic rock and coral formations, a permanent wild dolphin colony, reef sharks, turtles, schooling barracudas, and many kinds of rays and colorful fish. You can dive with 600 dolphins, the largest and oldest residential school of spinner dolphins in the world. You can also dive with juvenile sharks at Lage Dois Irmaos, a breeding and nursery area for fourteen species of reef sharks. Other dive sites include the Ipiranga, a Brazilian Navy Corvete, and a sunken Portuguese frigate. The rock formations are brilliantly colored with beautiful encrusting sponges. Diving this area is some of the best to be found.
Salvador Bahia, with the state of Bahia having the longest coastline in the country, offers excellent diving. Among the dives is diving the wreck of the Greek cargo ship, Cabo Artemides. The diving is best between December and February when visibility is ideal.
Abrolhos is Ideal for diving. The Archipelago of Abrolhos is located 45 miles off the southern coast of the state of Bahia and has the largest group of cliffs with a great variety of coral and hydrocorals. These rock formations harbor one of the largest, rarest, and healthiest coral reefs in the South Atlantic. Between June and December, the humpback whales arrive so you can dive and snorkel with them.
Pantanal and Bonito is located between the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso du Sul. In the state of Mato Grosso du Sul is Bonito with its incredibly clear rivers and freshwater caverns and caves that offers some great cave and cavern diving.
Best time to dive
Most of Brazil can be visited comfortably throughout the year; it’s only the south, which can be unbearably hot in the summer (December-February) and non-stop rainy in winter (June-August) – that has large seasonal changes. The rest of the country experiences brief tropical rains throughout the year.
Visibility
Visibility is often 50 to 100+ feet depending on where you’re diving.
Water temperatures
Water temperatures average 72 to 80 °F depending on where and when you’re diving.
Weather and climate
The Amazon Basin is the largest area in the world with a typical equatorial climate. Rainfall in some places can exceed 80 inches and there is no real dry season. Tropical temperatures of 80 to 90 °F are typical. In the south of the region, occasional cold spells cause night temperatures to fall below 50 °F. Daytime temperatures of 100 °F are rare, but the high humidity and monotony of the temperatures can make conditions feel very hot.
The Brazilian Plateau is large region, but being south of the Amazon Basin and at a moderate altitude, it has a very different climate. There is a very distinct wet season at the time of high sun, with almost all of the rainfall (about 60 inches) falling between October and April. The dry northeast of the region has a much lower average rainfall (in some places less than 30 inches, but it is also very irregular from year to year, causing prolonged droughts. The tropical east coast (including Rio de Janeiro) has a typically hot tropical climate, although there are significant differences in the season of greatest rainfall from north to south.
Near the Amazon mouth all months are wet, but the greatest rainfalls occur from December to May (in excess of 12 inches per month). Further south towards Recife, the wettest months are May to August, although amounts tend to be lower. Further south still towards Rio, the wettest period is November to April. Nowhere on this coast do maximum temperatures rise uncomfortable levels. Daytime heat is often tempered by sea breezes, but temperatures never drop very low.
The southern states have a warm temperate climate, although on the coast a distinct cooler season can produce frosts. Winter has a real significance in this region, and the difference between the seasons is determined by temperature rather than rainfall. The area is often affected by invasions of cold air from the Antarctic, but during summer, temperatures can rise to levels similar to the tropical regions. The region has a healthy and pleasant climate with an average of 8 to 9 hours of sunshine a day in the summer. In the higher areas, frost is common, but snow is rare. Inland, the wettest months are during the summer in contrast to the coast.
Language
Portuguese
Passport/Visa requirements
Passports must be valid for at least six months from date of entry. Visas are required for tourists of many nationalities, including Australia, Canada and the USA; visas are generally granted for a period of 90 days, with one extension of up to 90 days possible. Passport, visa, proof of onward passage and sufficient funds are required of citizens of Canada and the U.S.
Currency
Real – Get exchange rates at http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Electrical current
110 volts, except in Brasilia and some regions of the north, where it’s 220 volts
Capital
Brasília
General information
Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country, occupying almost half the South American continent and bordering every country on it except Chile and Ecuador. Much of Brazil is scarcely populated, although some regions with previously low population densities, such as the Amazon, are being rapidly settled, logged and depleted.
Brazil can be divided into four major geographic regions. The long, narrow Atlantic seaboard has coastal ranges between the Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia, but is flatter north of Bahia. The large highlands, called the Planalto Brasileiro or central plateau, which extend over most of Brazil’s interior south of the Amazon Basin are punctuated by several small mountain ranges and sliced by several large rivers.
Brazil’s has many problems, including poverty, crime, and environmental recklessness. Although it is one of the industrial powerhouses of South America, Brazil has trouble feeding all of its people. Deforestation of the Amazon basin proceeds at an ominous rate. The country is taking on some of its problems. Most noticeably, improvement is being made in the dangerous crime situation in Rio: A special branch of “tourist police” now keeps tourist sites – particularly the beaches of Zona Sul – relatively safe.
Map
Get a map of Brazil from WorldAtlas.com.
