A nation of extraordinary natural magnificence, vibrant cultural energy, and a beauty so overwhelming in its scale and diversity that it simply defies adequate description — where Christ the Redeemer’s outstretched arms embrace a city of breathtaking Carioca beauty above one of the world’s most spectacular natural harbours, Iguazu Falls thunders in a horseshoe of 275 individual waterfalls of extraordinary combined power that makes Niagara appear modest by comparison, and the Amazon River basin’s extraordinary rainforest biodiversity shelters more species of plant, bird, and animal life than any comparable ecosystem on the surface of the earth.