From Eyes on Brazil

The British daily, The Guardian, put out its list of the top 10 Brazilian beaches and a description of each, after polling some ‘experts’ on the matter.

“The Brazilian equivalent of the British expression “Just my cup of tea” is “é minha praia” (’That’s my beach”), which tells you all you need to know about the two countries’ relative cultural values. Brazilians can talk for hours about their favourite strip, nowhere is more closely associated with the beach as lifestyle than Brazil, and golden sands provide many of the country’s cultural icons: The Girl from Ipanema, Havaianas, fio dental (”dental floss”) bikinis, Copacabana …

With 8,000km of coastline and thousands of beaches to choose from – most of them lying beneath palm trees in the tropics – we asked 10 experts to choose their favourites, from a river beach in the Amazon down to one of the country’s hippest beach cities, Florianópolis. And if we’ve missed out your favourite, we’d like to hear from you.”

1. Alter do Chao, Pará (which I’ll write about on the new Belém site)
2. Fernando de Noronha (technically an archipelago, not a beach)
3. Praia do Toque, Alagoas
4. Taipus de Fora, Maraú peninsula, Bahia
5. Caraiva, Bahia
6. Arpoador, Rio de Janeiro (Ipanema is better. Prainha is a local favorite)
7. Lopes Mendes, Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro state
8. Praia da Fazenda, São Paulo state
9. Bonete, São Paulo state
10. Lagoinha do Leste, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina