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The surprisingly modern heart of Campo Grande is based around the Praça Ari Coelho, five blocks east of the Rodoviária. Tourism is fairly low-key in the city, but there's enough to keep you interested for a couple of days. One of the best-known attractions is the Museu Dom Bosco (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 8am-5pm, Sun noon-6pm; $1), in the university building facing the Praça da República, at Rua Barão do Rio Branco 1811-43. A fascinating place, it's crammed full of exhibits, ranging from superb forest Indian artefacts to over 10,000 terrifying dead insects and some astonishingly beautiful butterflies. Most impressive of all is the vast collection of stuffed birds and animals, including giant rheas (the South American version of an ostrich), anacondas and examples of the Brazilian marsupials - the gamba and the quica.

Closer to the city centre, the Casa do Artesão (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 9am-5pm), on the corner of Avenida Calógeras and Avenida Afonso Pena, is slightly disappointing considering the huge region it is supposed to represent (not least the Terena, Kadiwéu and Guato peoples). It sells mostly local craft works, the best pieces without a doubt being the woodcarvings, often depicting mythical symbols like fish-women and totemic figures. Just down the road from here, the tourist information office building at Av. Noroeste 5140 (Tues-Sat 9am-8pm) also houses a small historical museum and a couple of art galleries showing changing exhibitions. Two galleries specializing in local contemporary art are the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Mato Grosso do Sul (MARCO), Av. Calógeras 2499 (Tues-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat & Sun 9am-4pm), and the Centro Cultural de Mato Grosso, Rua 26 de Agosto 463.

Campo Grande also hosts several markets: the Mercado Municipal (daily, closed Mon morning) sells a good range of inexpensive souvenirs, including cow-horn trumpets, horn goblets and drinking gourds; the Feira Indigena (daily) just outside the Mercado Municipal, devotes itself almost exclusively to market-garden produce from the mata; and the Feira Central , Rua Abrão Julio Rahe, off Avenida Mato Grosso, takes place twice a week (Wed & Sat), overnight from 3pm to 6am, and attracts a large number of forest Indians selling potions and bundles of bark, beads and leatherwork, as well as a few Paraguayans selling toys. The eclectic blend of peoples is further compounded by the variety of foods on offer, ranging from churrasquinho to Japanese yaki soba.

There's more artesanato on sale, though the range is limited, at the Oca Indigena , an impressive native-style long house, hidden away on the edges of town behind the Centro Regional de Saúde on Dr Arthur Vasconcelos Dias. For the flip side to contemporary Mato Grosso culture, head for the cowboy shop at Rua Barão do Rio Branco 1296 near the Jandaia Hotel, which sells gunbelts, holsters, saddles and boots. You can see some of this gear in action at the horse racing , out at the Hipódromo, run by the Jóquei Clube de Campo Grande; the Hipódromo is 5km along Highway BR-167, beyond the exit for Dourados.

If all this is too much for you, head for the Parque dos Poderes , beyond the town centre at the end of Avenida Mato Grosso (Mon-Fri noon-6pm), a calm ecological reserve that's home to a variety of native plants and a small selection of the region's wild animals.