If you’ve been reading us for a while you’re probably aware by now that we are big fans of Google Maps and its use to support travel planning (we talked about it at GoogleMaps on the Brazil Travel Blog).

Google has just added a new weather layer to its Google Maps (you can read the official announcement at Rain or Shine, see the weather on Google Maps).

If you enter Google Maps and go to the widget on the top right corner where you select the different view modes (Map, Earth, Traffic, Photos and so on) you will see there is a new layer called “Weather”. If you select it, you will see weather-related symbols appearing on your map. We’ll be using Rio de Janeiro as our example:

If you click on the symbol next to Rio (sun and cloud) you will see a pop up window with the forecast for the coming days (as my settings for the Google Apps are in Spanish I’m seeing the info in Spanish, you will see it in English).

If you click on 10 days you will get yet more weather information.

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RELATED POSTS:
Google’s Street View has landed in Brazil
ultra high-resolution satellite photos of Brazil
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GoogleMaps on the Brazil Travel Blog

To complete the information given at destination: Paraty we are publishing the following map prepared with the help of Google Maps. You will find on the map the location of the most important sights in Paraty, the name of the streets of the historic centre and the most important beaches on the Paraty region (including nearby Trindade).

See Paraty on a new window.

Paraty is one of our absolute favourite destinations in Brazil. We hadn’t published a map before as only recently Google made high-resolution images of the area available.

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Paraty
destination: Trindade

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Google’s long-awaited Street View imagery of Brazil is finally here. For months, Google’s fleet drove throughout the streets of Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and a substantial number of towns in the metropolitan area of the mentioned cities taking thousands of photographs and documenting visually what Brazil looks like from ground level. Google’s cameras also photographed cities on the São Paulo coast (Santos, Praia Grande, Guarujá) and the Historical Cities of Minas Gerais (Congonhas, Mariana, Tiradentes, Diamantina, São João Del Rei and Ouro Preto).

To use Street View you need to access Google Maps, view any of the three cities mentioned above and drag the “yellow man” (on top of the zoom tool, left-hand side of the map) to see the outline of the steets with Street View coverage appear in blue colour. Drop the man and off you go, start visiting the city from a different perpective.

Street View has many uses. And obvious one is to check the location of a hotel or see the external appearance of tourist sight.

Here’s a few images of known tourist sights of the three cities mentioned above. Do you recognize them?

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Street View in Belo Horizonte

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Street View in the Historical Cities of Minas Gerais

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Street View in Río de Janeiro

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Street View in São Paulo

And to end this blog post, a surprise at the São Paulo sambadrome. Enter the venue and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a carnival parade! Smashing!

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Belo Horizonte
destination: Rio de Janeiro
destination: São Paulo
GoogleMaps on the Brazil Travel Blog
ultra high-resolution satellite photos of Brazil
new transit layer on Google Maps

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The latest round of imagery update by Google brought updated high-resolution coverage to new areas of Ilha Grande.

You can now see the details of all the constructions at the former Dois Rios penitentiary.

See larger map

If you need any reasons to visit the island, have a look from above at idylic Lagoa Azul.

See larger map

Or the equally beautiful Mangues and Pouso beaches.

See larger map

How about reaching this beautiful yet unknown corner of the most famous Ilha Grande beach?

See larger map

The recent images show the scar left by the landslide that provoked the Ilha Grande tragedy at the beginning of the year.

See larger map

Memories of the tragedy returned this week when I saw the publicity being made of a new “luxury” and supposedly “eco” pousada recently opened on the island and built (literally!) on top of giant boulders by the sea. God knows who gave permission for that horrendous building to be constructed. Chances are we will only find out if there is ever a new tragedy.

The starting point to all the information we have on Ilha Grande is this blog’s post destination: Ilha Grande.

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the situation in Ilha Grande after the tragedy

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To complete the information given at destination: Curitiba we are publishing the following map prepared with the help of Google Maps. You will find on the map the location of the most important sights in Curitiba. The satellite images for Curitiba are in high resolution, you will be able to appreciate the details of most buildings and locations.

Ver mapa Curitiba a pantalla completa

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Linha Turismo, Curitiba’s hop-on hop-off bus
photos of Curitiba and Morretes

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The World touristiness map is a map project that analyzed the number of Panoramio photos for every spot on the world and turned the density of photos into colour shades. Yellow shows where the highest concentration of photos is, red highlights a medium concentration and blue a low concentration. Areas in grey have no photos available.

On the global map the standing fact is the central role of Europe. On the South American continent, a high concentration of photos can be guessed in the south east region of Brazil.

When you look closer at the map of Brazil you confirm the high concentration of photos for the south east region (mainly Rio and São Paulo) and also along most of the country’s coast. No surprises when you realize most of the Amazon region is unphotographed.

If you are after an undiscovered destination, you might as well search for it using this map!

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To complete the information given at destination: Brasilia we are publishing the following map prepared with the help of Google Maps. You will find on the map the location of the most important sights in Brasilia. The satellite images for Brasilia are in high resolution, you will be able to appreciate the details of most buildings and locations.

View Brasilia on a bigger map

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destination: Brasilia
sighsteeing in Brasilia

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To complete the information given at destination: Ouro Preto we are publishing the following map prepared with the help of Google Maps. You will find on the map the location of the most important sights in Ouro Preto (most pinpoints on the map are illustrated with a photograph). The points with the camera icon show viewpoints.

View Ouro Preto on a bigger map

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto photo album

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To complete the information given at Praia do Forte we have prepared a map of the village where we have identified the main points of interest. Wherever you see the camera symbol there is a photo taken at that location.

View Praia do Forte on a new page

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Praia do Forte

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To complete the information given at destination: Salvador we have prepared a map of the city where we have identified the main points of interest. Wherever you see the camera symbol there is a photo taking at that location.

Salvador is one of the few cities in Brazil where Google makes available ultra-high resolution satellite images.

View Salvador de Bahia on a new page

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Salvador

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