Brazil - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 232

on the planet. Then there's the Maracanã
stadium , a huge draw for football fans and
freshly renovated to host the World Cup
final in 2014 and Olympic Games in 2016.
It's a setting enhanced by a frenetic nightlife
scene and the annual sensuality of Carnaval ,
an explosive celebration which - for many
people - sums up Rio and her citizens,
the cariocas .

Rio de Janeiro
The citizens of RIO DE JANEIRO call it the
cidade marvilhosa - and there can't be
much argument about that. It's a huge city
with a stunning setting, extending along
40km of sandy coast and sandwiched
between an azure sea and jungle-clad
mountains. The city's unusual name has
a curious history: Portuguese explorers
arriving at the mouth of Guanabara Bay
on January 1, 1502 thought they had
discovered the mouth of an enormous
river which they named the January River
or Rio de Janeiro. By the time the first
settlement was established and the error
was realized, the name had already stuck.
Although riven by inequality, Rio has
great style. Its international renown is
bolstered by a series of symbols that rank
as some of the greatest landmarks in the
world: the Corcovado mountain supporting
the great statue of Christ the Redeemer; the
rounded incline of the Sugarloaf mountain
standing at the entrance to the bay; the
beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema ,
probably the most famous lengths of sand

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Rio's sights are scattered across three main
sectors of the city, and improved metrô links
make getting around fairly straightforward.
Centro contains the last vestiges of the
metropolis's colonial past, and its major sites
are easily walkable in one day. The most
obvious place to start is historic Praça XV
de Novembro , while the other main focal
point, Cinelândia, has numerous places of
interest nearby. Just south of here are the
lively bairros of Lapa , capital of Brazil's
samba scene, and bohemian Santa Teresa
sprawling across the hills above. It's the
Zona Sul (south zone), however, where
you're likely to spend most of your time -
in no small part due to the 16km of sandy
beaches that line its shores - though visits

3

RIO DE JANEIRO

Tom Jobim
International
Airport

PENHA

Baía de
Guanabara

MADUREIRA

SÃO
CRISTOVÃO

NITERÓI Rodoviária

Novo Rio

Santos
Dumont
Airport

MÉIER Feira Nordestina

CENTRO

Museu National
Maracaná Stadium Museu de Arte

Contemporânea

STA.
TERESA

PARQUE
NACIONAL
DE TIJUCA

FLAMENGO

LARANJEIRAS

Pico da
Tijuca

Pico do
Papegaio

Corcovado

BOTAFOGO

LAGOA

ALTO DA
BOA VISTA

Pão de Açúcar

Lagoa
Rodrigo
de Freitas

N

COPACABANA

GÁVEA
LEBLON

SÃO
CONRADO

IPANEMA

BARRA DA TIJUCA

ATLANTIC OCEAN

0 10

kilometres