Watch the video of Porto Alegre
 | • Porto Alegre is the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state, Rio Grande do Sul. The city has 1.6 million inhabitants, located at the epicenter of the main routes of activities of Mercosul, with a huge lake with calm water, the Guaíba lake. The climate is divided into four defined seasons. • Porto Alegre is one of the greenest cities in Brazil. With an average of 17m² of green area per capita. In 1976, was created in the city the first Secretary of the Environment in Brazil. • Porto Alegre is a national prominence for its quality of life. The capital consisted of the UN report of 1998, as the city with the best Human Development Index (HDI) among the national cities with more than 500 thousand inhabitants. • Location: Parallel 30º South • Climate: Subtropical humid with four distinct seasons • Time Zone: (-) 3 hours prior to the Greenwich Meridian |
Brasília: 2.027km
Manaus: 4.563km
Rio de Janeiro: 1.553km
São Paulo: 1.109km
• Population: 1,530,220 (Census IBGE/2008)
• Average temperature at the time of the event: 25º C
Information gathered from the site: www.portoalegre.rs.gov.br
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 | <><><><>HOW TO PREPARE THE AUTHENTIC “Chimarrão” GAÚCHO • First, to prepare the authentic gaucho mate (chimarrão) we need: a kettle, a bowl (a cup made from gourd, called cuia) and a pump, the mate (a special kind of green tea from South América), water and some stove to heat the water. • Having checked all the instruments to prepare the mate put the water to warm up, fill the bowl around two-thirds full of herb (mate). • Then with the palm of the hand plugging the hole in the bowl, turn the cuia back to around 45 to the vertical until the mate takes up half of it. When this occurs slowly remove your hand from the bowl being careful not to collapse the mate hill. |
• With sloping fill it to the edge of water, and wait for the mate to absorb all the water. Some gauchos repeat the process 2 times. • Place the pump in the bowl (the pump and the bowl should be parallel). This should be done with the nozzle capped. You can now hold the nozzle. | |
