Ibiúna

Ibiúna is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 is 72,181 and the area is 1062.1 km². The elevation is 860 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language.

Ibiúna is a city located in the countryside of Brazil, located 70 km east of São Paulo, state capital. Located in the middle of a valley, the town is situated at 900 m above sea level and its main economical activity/resources are provided from agriculture (developed by the hundreds of Japanese immigrants stablished there) and been recently turned to a tourist city a few years ago, despite its total lack of infrastructure for the task of welcoming and entertaining visitors. The whole Ibiuna vast territory (equal to the whole metropolitan area of São Paulo) encompasses rainforests, bushes, and hundreds of kilometers of untouched nature and wildlife still waiting to be ruined by ecotourists and researchers.

The population is mostly situated outside the metropolitan area (15,000 inhabitants in the city and approximatedly 65,000 in the suburbs) and is a mix of Portuguese Colonialists descendants, Italians, Germans and Africans — as mostly any part of the country, Ibiuna is a mix of races and cultures. Once a year, the city held the famous "San Sebastian festival" party celebrated for nearly a century to reaffirm the faith of town's divine intervention by St. Sebastian during a Spanish influenza epidemic (the celebration occurs every year during the last weekend of May). Recently, the small town was elected by a research as one of the most violent cities of the São Paulo state due to its proximity to the capital and its vast territory which is spread alongside 900 km of roads too extensive to be covered and screened for criminals.

External links

* http://www.guiasaoroque.com.br/ibiuna/ibiuna.htm About Ibiúna
* http://www.ibiuna.com.br