The Beast of Brazil

Brazil! At once exciting and exotic; rich and poor; ambitious and laconic. Beckoning the world to come. Bem-vindo! It is time. The world stage awaits and the table is set. The Olympics! A showcase for the world to see. Rio, Amazonia, Brasilia, and Sao Paolo. Favellas, music, and Carnival. World class slums; first-class beaches. The beautiful people. Seven hundred years ago native Kayapo Indians owned the earth, the jungle. Sugarloaf was merely a mountain; Christ had not yet come to the New World. Canoes plied the Amazon River, the River Negro, and the Xinga; trade flourished between tribes. An empire existed. Now the world will come and see its oxygen plant, see the mighty Amazon, the watershed of a nation, and visit its exotic jungles. That is, if Brazil can survive the street protests of millions over corruption, the Zika virus, an underground river undermining a stadium, and Chunk DeLuna, the beast of Brazil.