Ibiúna

Ibiuna is a city located in the countryside of Brazil, located 70 km east of Sao Paulo, state capital. Located in the middle of a valley, the town is situated at 900 m above sea level and it's 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 Sao Paulo) englobes rainforests, bushes, and hundreds of kilometers of untouched nature and wildlife still waiting to be exploited by ecotourists and researchers.

The population is majorly situated outside the metropolitan area (15,000 inhabitants in the city and approximatedly 65,000 along 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 Sao Paulo state due to its proximity to the capital, its vast territory spread alongside 900 km of roads too extense to be covered and screened for criminals.