A beautiful setting for beautiful people
Rio de Janeiro hasn’t earned the nickname Cidade Marvilhosa (‘Marvellous City’) for nothing – fringed by white-sand beaches on one side and verdant mountains on the other, it enjoys one of the finest city locations on the planet. Life for most cariocas, as Rio’s citizens are called, revolves around the beach, but there are several incredible natural landmarks a short tram or cable car ride away if you can ever drag yourself away from the water’s edge.
Rio is split into three main areas – north, south and the centre – which are each made up of various, quite distinctive neighbourhoods or bairros. The vast majority of visitors spend their time in the beach-blessed Zona Sul, but it’s worth venturing up the coast into Centro, the historic heart of the city, where traces of Rio’s colonial past lie semi-hidden in the shadows.
Most visitors make a dash for the Zona Sul beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, and for good reason – arcing along the seafront of Avenida Atlântic and Avenida Vieira Souto, respectively, these long ribbons encapsulate Rio lifestyle: vibrant, cosmopolitan and, above all, showy. Cariocas only leave the beach for bed or for the inconvenience of work, but you should dust off the sand and head to the eastern end of Copacabana, where the bairro of Urca, marking the end of Guanabara Bay and the start of the Atlantic Ocean, is home to the brooding hulk of the Pão de Açúcar – more famously known as Sugar Loaf Mountain (Avenida Pasteur 520, +21 2546 8400). The views from its summit and, further inland, from the Corcovado, the curved hill topped by the famous towering statue of Christ (Rua Cosme Velho 513, www.corcovado.com.br), are stunning.
Stretching to the north of here is Centro, the city’s grid-like commercial centre, dissected by the immense 14-lane Avenida Presidente Vargas; it’s along here that the Rio Carnival’s extravagantly costumed paraders swarm en route to the Sambodrómo, the main setting for the February event. Walking down Avenida Rio Branco, at the eastern end of Presidente Vargas, will lead to Praça Floriano, an attractive square still adorned with fine examples of the city’s architectural heritage, particularly the striking Teatro Municipal (+21 2299-1667, www.theatromunicipal.rj.com.br).
There’s little of interest in Zona Norte, save for the magnificent Maracanã (Rua Professor Eurico Rabelo, +21 242-8806), a stadium befitting the country’s footballing repute.
Local history
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, Rio de Janeiro’s existence ebbed and flowed with the fortunes of sugar cane, coffee and then African slaves – the latter considerably shaping the city’s music and cuisine. The urban reconstruction that characterised the early 1900s has continued unabated to the present day, with ever more high-rise hotels popping up in preparation for the impending Pan American Games (13 July to 29 July 2007).
Local politics
The city’s infamous hillside favelas (slums), once a byword for poverty and crime, are undergoing something of a renaissance. Finally recognizing their legitimacy, the government is in the process of upgrading their basic amenities – introducing lighting, sanitation and so on – while seeking to incorporate them into wider city life.
