When the president gets tied down
RIO GRANDE DO SUL: Riding with the gaúcho
MINAS GERAIS: Franco the noisy populist
Turning banks into tax collectors
Salvador in the state of Bahia is a favourite tourist destination for Brazilians but its charms have yet to gain full recognition abroad. Cariocas (natives of Rio de Janeiro), who most foreigners would think already live in an exotic city, come to Salvador to find the even more exotic. This includes African-derived cuisine and music played for free every night in the historic and much restored centre of Pelourinho. Pelourinho was dilapidated until the state government launched a recovery programme in 1992. Salvador's beaches, which are as impressive as Rio's, seem to stretch for ever and carnivals in Salvador are longer and livelier than those in Rio.
But migration to the big cities such as Salvador from the arid middle of the state...
