Campo Grande is a modern, pleasant town of 800,000 (2007) that sits in the middle of Brazilian cattle country. The city serves as the main gateway to the southern part of the Pantanal. It is known in Brazil for as the ''brown city'' because of the local soil color. Its inhabitants are called campo-grandenses. The culture of the city betrays a heritage of native Indians and diverse races (Italian, German, Syrian-Lebaneses, Japanese, Paraguayans, Bolivians, among others). http://wikitravel.org/en/Campo Grande