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Nicknamed the "brunette city" because of its chestnut-coloured earth, CAMPO GRANDE has in less than fifty years been transformed from an insignificant settlement into a buzzing metropolis with a population of 650,000. Founded in 1889, the city was only made the capital of the new state of Mato Grosso do Sul in the late 1970s, since when it has almost doubled in size, though it retains a distinctly rural flavour: its downtown area manages to combine skyscraping banks and apartment buildings with ranchers' general stores and poky little shops selling strange forest herbs and Catholic ex votos. Unnervingly reminiscent of Dallas in parts, it's a relatively salubrious market centre for an enormous cattle-ranching region; it's also an important centre of South American trade routes from Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and the south of Brazil.

An obvious place to break a long journey between Cuiabá or Corumbá and the coast, Campo Grande tries hard to shake off the feeling that it's a city stuck in the middle of nowhere. Apart from the gaúcho influence, the town centre is much like that of any other medium-sized city; the people are friendly and there's little manifest poverty. The generally warm evenings inspire the locals to turn out on the streets in force. People chat over a meal or sipping ice-cold beers at one of the restaurants or bars around Avenida Afonso Pena and the Praça Ari Coelho, and guitars, maracas and congas are often brought out for an impromptu music session.