Pelotas, Administrative district in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Pelotas is a city along the São Gonçalo Channel in Rio Grande do Sul, roughly 270 kilometers south of Porto Alegre. The waterway connects the city to Lagoa dos Patos, a large coastal lagoon whose southern shore shapes much of the surrounding landscape.
The city began in 1780 when Portuguese rancher José Pinto Martins built a facility for drying salted meat. Within a few decades, the area became the leading production center for charque across Brazil.
The annual Fenadoce festival brings over 300,000 visitors to experience Portuguese confectionery traditions and local gastronomy in dedicated exhibition spaces.
The city hosts two main universities, the Federal University of Pelotas and Catholic University of Pelotas, with around 22,000 students combined. The center is easily walkable, and many older buildings line the streets near the canal.
The area experiences cooler winters than most of Brazil, with occasional frost on some mornings. In rare years, light snow has been recorded, a reminder of the southern location near the border with Uruguay.
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