Flying Down to Rio

In Brazil, Rio is known as Cidade Maravilhosa, or the Marvelous City.  Famous for the "Girl from Ipanema," the dramatic views from the Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf) and Corcovado, and for the lavish Carnival celebrations, Rio is also a city of beautiful architecture, excellent museums, and interesting cuisine.  Rio is home to 6.1 million residents and to 23 beaches, an almost continuous 45-mile ribbon of sand.

White sands, year-round sunshine, samba, parties, and affordable prices combine to make Rio's beaches some of the best in the world.  On a hot summer Saturday or Sunday as many as 500,000 sunbunnies crowd onto the 230-foot wide stretch of prime sand that runs for eight kilometers from Leme through venerable Copacabana and chic Ipanema to fashionable Leblon. Creatures of habit, beachgoers hang out at the same spots. "Cariocas" (locals) define themselves by the stretch of sand they frequent. There are "points" for teens, gays, surfers, and just about any special interest group. Points are unofficial and unsupervised, but the locals know where to find their spots.

In most cultures, the wealthy live high on the hill to overlook their domains below.  Not in Rio. Here, where so many residents live in poverty, the slums ("favelas") hug the steep hillside. Favelas lack sturdy buildings with proper sanitation and electricity yet are close to the city's wealthiest areas; Ipanema and Copacabana squeeze between the beach and the favelas' hills.  Sadly, the beaches have become heavily polluted by open sewers from the favelas, a problem common even to the Copacobana and Ipanema beaches.

 

Christ the Redeemer, the 98 ft. tall statue sits atop the 2,329 ft. Corcovado mountain.  The statue was intended to mark the 100th anniversary of Brazilian independence in 1922, but due to a funding shortfall, it didn't open until 1931. The statue overlooks Guanabara Bay. Portuguese explorers reached the bay in an expedition on January 20, 1502 in search of a river: hence Rio de Janeiro, "January River."

Rio encircles the two world's largest urban forests, green sanctuaries from the hectic pace of the city.  Since 1961, Tijuca Forest has been a national park. It adjoins the largest rainforest, the neighboring White Rock Forest.

Niteroi lies on the east side of Guanabara Bay, opposite the city of Rio de Janeiro, with which it is connected by the 9.5 mile Presidente Costa e Silva Bridge.  In 1996, at 89 years old, Oscar Niemeyer, famed architect of Brazilia, created what many consider his greatest work: the Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum.

The museum stands in the heart of Flamengo Park, surrounded by gardens planned by Brazil's quintessential landscape designer Burle Marx (remember the sidewalks by the beaches). The saucer-shaped modernist structure, which has been likened to a UFO, is set on a cliff, at the bottom of which is, of course, a beach.  Its permanent collection has over 2,000 pieces by Brazilian and international artists.

 

Whether it's shopping for jewels at H. Stern, hiking in a rainforest, visiting museums, or hang-gliding from Pedra Bonita (Beautiful Rock) to land on the Praia do Pepino (Cucumber Beach), Rio offers a fun, exotic, and fulfilling vacation experience.