| Santos | |||
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| — Município — | |||
| Estância Balneária de Santos | |||
| from top, left to right: Canal 4, Jardins da orla de Santos, Port of Santos, Bondes de Santos, Museu de Pesca, Litoral de São Paulo, Santos skyline | |||
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| Motto: Patriam Charitatem et Libertatem Docui (Latin: To the homeland I taught charity and liberty) |
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Santos
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Santos
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Brazil | ||
| State | São Paulo | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | Mayor-council | ||
| • Mayor | João Paulo Tavares Papa (PMDB) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Município | 280.3 km2 (108.2 sq mi) | ||
| • Urban | 803 km2 (310 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation(AMSL) | 2 m (7 ft) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| • Município | 419,757 1,476,820(Baixada Santista) |
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| • Density | 1,494/km2 (3,869.4/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym | Santista | ||
| Time zone | UTC-3 (UTC-3) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-2 (UTC-2) | ||
| Postal code | 11000-000 | ||
| Area code | +55 (Brazil) 13 (Region) | ||
| Website | www.santos.sp.gov.br | ||
Santos (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈsɐ̃tus] ( listen), Saints) is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil, founded in 1546 by the Portuguese nobleman Brás Cubas. It is partially located on the island of São Vicente, which harbors both the city of Santos and the city of São Vicente, and partially on the mainland. It is the main city in the metropolitan region of Baixada Santista. As of 2006[update], its population was estimated at 418,375 (1,476,820 metro area). Santos has the biggest seaport in Latin America, which handled over 72 million tons in 2006. It has large industrial complexes and shipping centers, which handle a large portion of the world's coffee exports, as well as a number of other Brazilian exports including steel, oil, cars, oranges, bananas and cotton. The city is also home to the Coffee Museum, where, once, coffee prices were negotiated. There is also a football memorial, dedicated to the city's greatest players, which includes Pelé, who played for Santos Futebol Clube. Its beachfront garden, 5.335 km in length, figures in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest beachfront garden in the world.
The exportation of coffee from the Port of Santos gave rise to the city and mostly accounted for the wealth of the city at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Exportation and importation through its port have made it the modern city one finds today and turned it into the indispensable outlet for the production of the powerhouse that is São Paulo State. Adorning the landscape of the port city are the canals that are over a hundred years old. In 1899, Santos was the point of entry for the bubonic plague into Brazil.[1] In 1924, it became the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santos.
In October 2006, light crude oil was discovered off the coast in the Santos basin.[2]
Santos is about 79 km (49 mi) from the metropolis São Paulo, capital of the state São Paulo.
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It is divided into two distinct geographic areas: the islands and the continental area. Both areas differ both in terms of population, as in economic terms and geography.
Santos partially lies on the island of São Vicente (Saint Vincent), whose territory is divided with the neighboring municipality of São Vicente. It is a densely urbanized area of 39.4 km ² that houses almost all the inhabitants of the city. It includes a flat area - Plain Coastal extension of the State of São Paulo - which has altitudes that rarely go above twenty meters above sea level, and an area composed of isolated hills called the Mass of São Vicente, the former home and endowed an urban illegal occupation with a mix of families characterized by high and low incomes, whose height does not exceed 200 meters above sea level.
The flat region of the island of St. Vincent, is almost completely devoid of native vegetation. In the north region of the island - especially in the Alemoa, Chico de Paula and Saboó neighbourhoods - there are still remnants of mangroves. Before the occupation of the area of the island by 'chácaras' - rural residences, and subsequently by urbanization, there was a vast flooded land covered by mangroves, the native Atlantic Forest, and coastal vegetation.
One can still find vast areas covered by the native Atlantic Forest on the city hills, in spite of the existing chácaras and banana harvesting farms in the area. The 'Lagoa da Saudade' (Homesickness Lagoon), a pond located in one of the aforementioned hills, Morro Nova Cintra, was known to host a kind of caiman. The lagoon is also a popular destination among families in the city due to its playgrounds, barbecue kiosks, picnic spots and green areas. The disordered occupation of the hills represents both an environmental as well as a geological risk: the deforestation leads to frequent landslides, mainly from January to March, the traditional rainy season in the region.
Most rivers in the island were channeled when engineer Saturnino de Brito designed the system of canals in the city. As examples, we can cite the rivers Dois Rios ("Two Rivers") and Ribeirao dos Soldados ("Soldiers Creek"), which is nowadays referred by santistas as the 'Canal 4' on Avenue Siqueira Campos.
Major water courses cut the island in the north, such as the Rio de São Jorge (St. George River), which suffers from the problems of pollution and silting due to the occupation of its banks by slums.
Despite the fact that its located just outside the tropics, Santos has a tropical rainforest climate with no real dry season. Tropical rainforest climates are typically found near the equator, so Santos featuring this type of climate is an exceptional situation. All months of the year averages more than 60 mm of rainfall during the course of the year. Santos features warm weather throughout the year, though June in Santos is somewhat cooler (and drier) than January. The average temperature in the city during the month of June is 23 C, while the average temperature in January is 28 C.
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