It’s 2020, and you own a travel agency. Once travelers stop booking and borders are shut, how do you keep interest in your destination alive? Polyana de Oliveira’s solution was to write a book. A cookbook. As a travel entrepreneur, home cook, and lover of all things related to Brazilian culture, she could not just sit around and wait for borders to reopen. Since many people were at home cooking, and there were many stories to tell, she decided to create something that would approximate travelers to her country, and to keep Brazil in the minds of the culturally curious, even if she couldn’t sell travel again quite yet.

In “Travel to Brazil, the Cookbook,” Polyana will tell you a little bit of her own story, growing up in the United States as an undocumented Brazilian immigrant, and how this brought her to build a travel company to promote her home country. She also tells the stories of people from around the country, how they work with travelers, and shares recipes for their own favorite dishes – from traditional Brazilian fare to unique creations. From the Iguaçu Falls in the south of Brazil, to river beaches in the Amazon, and many destinations in between, explore Brazil and Brazilian cuisine with locals.

Polyana de Oliveira was born in Brazil, and when she was 2 years old, her family moved to the United States – where she grew up, undocumented. Her legal status, and longing for her country of birth brought her to Brazil, where she has been living since 2008.

Since 2011, she has built several travel related businesses, and is now owner and director of Viare Travel, a company that promotes Brazil as a destination for discerning and conscious travelers. “Travel to Brazil, The Cookbook,” is her first published book, in which she incorporates her knowledge of the country, with stories and recipes from her network throughout Brazil, to talk about the country’s travel offerings, and the food that accompanies these experiences.

Polyana currently lives in São Paulo with her partner and their dog. The three of them love to take road trips together, with the windows rolled down.

This is a collaborative project, created with tourism and hospitality providers passionate about their destinations and local culture. It is a book that aims to encourage travel to Brazil, and interest in the culture of the country. It is also a form of promoting these collaborators’ work.

Besides the promotion of the providers featured in the book, Polyana has opted to designate ten percent of all profits made on the sales of the book through this website, towards projects that encourage the development of community based travel in Brazil.

Why community based? Because this is the sort of travel that tells stories of the people who preserve all sorts of intangible heritages and cultures in Brazil. These are the people who are usually most vulnerable in the country, but also who are most interested in maintaining the environment in which they live, alive and well.

Learn more about the initiatives this book plans to support here: