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Brazil's cities are as varied as its people. The Brazilians of Rio—better known as Cariocas—are a lively, loving lot who live for the beach, the fast and easy deal, the artful fix (jeito) and fun and sloppy sports clothes. Nothing seems to bother the Cariocas. Because of power shortages, the lights in various parts of Rio are turned off at various times each evening. Instead of worrying about it, the carioca has invented a game called carioca roulette, in which he climbs into an elevator around shut-off time and takes his chances on making it to his floor. Thousands lose every night, often spending three or four hours in stifling, pitch-black gloom. Not long ago, seven Rio cops hit on a particularly Brazilian solution for ridding Rio of its 17,000 beggars; they began leading the mendigos into a truck, lugging them out to the Guarda River west of the city and drowning them. Did the beggars riot when the scandal broke? Many simply showed up in their usual places the next day wearing big grins—and life preservers.
In contrast to Rio, Sāo Paulo is all business. Brazil's biggest and fastest growing city (pop. 6,000,000), it has 25,000 industrial enterprises that account for 30% of Brazil's total production. Sao Paulo considers itself the Brazilian Wall Street, and Paulistas act and dress accordingly, favoring dark suits and somber miens for all occasions. When he is not at one of the city's 500 sports clubs, Sao Paulo's favorite recreation, the Paulista will usually be in his car fighting Latin America's worst traffic jam (416,000 vehicles on the road). He can also pick from any one of 464 nightclubs, nine times more than Rio, or from some 1,000 restaurants, more than in all the rest of Brazil.
Up the coast, Salvador, Brazil's oldest and fifth largest city (850,000 people) is the quintessence of African Brazil, a mellow, languorous city of rich, luminous colors that smells of dende oil, coconut milk and malagueta pepper and resounds to the throaty, metal-stringed strum of the African berimbau. To the north, once-sleepy Belem has turned into a throbbing mainstream of the Amazon's economic life, thanks to the highway linking it to Brasilia. In the remote Amazon city of Manaus, Brazil's fabled old turn-of-the-century rubber capital, life moves almost as languidly as the deep black waters of the nearby Rio Negro.