Cuiabá

At first sight, the capital of the state of Mato Grosso is a city that is relatively peaceful, flat and planted with trees where traces of the colonial past mingle with present day development which, thanks to its university, has led the city has become a major centre for learning. But it is much more than that. Intersected by the River Cuiabá, the city was the destination of explorers and adventurers who in the 18th and 19th centuries set out from São Paulo on river expeditions, sailing up the River Tietê and the network of tributaries of the Rivers Paraná and Paraguay to the River Cuiabá, settling in the centre of Brazil, setting up trading posts and going in search of the region's abundant gold reserves.

A remarkable city on account of its cuisine based on fish from the rivers of the region, Cuiabá is also one of the ports for the Pantanal, (marshlands) by means of the roads that lead to Porto Jofre or to Poconé and Águas Quentes, a town where the waterfalls, mountain climate and thermal springs at temperatures between 32 and 42 ºC, delight the visitors.