"The Wonderful City" a Rio de Janeiro Travel Page by Mazely

Rio de Janeiro was founded on March 1st, 1565, as a way to stablish a Portuguese settlement against French invasors. If you are French, I recommend you to read a book called "Rouge Brésil" (Folio), very fictional in some points, but realistic about the historical background of the founding of the city. "Rio de Janeiro" comes from "river of january", because the Guanabara Bay, along the city, was discovered on January 1st, 1501, by Portugueses who first thought the bay was a river.

During the XVIII Century, due to the "gold cycle" in Minas Gerais State, the capital was changed from Salvador to Rio, that remained capital until 1960. Brasília was built and became the capital as a way of attracting people to the inner parts of the country.

There are so many things about Rio... if I manage to create a good page, I'll try to phocus the cultural part of the city and, mainly, Rio's downtown, always neglected by touristic companies, that think everybody wants to be sunoverburnt and have skin cancer. The beaches are great, but they aren't all.

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Sugar Loaf and Botafogo zone seen from Corcovado

Best sees

There are a plenty of places and events you cannot lose while in Rio: the Christ "Redeemer" statue, on the top of Corcovado mountain, the Sugar Loaf hills, with a cable-tram linking them, the Floresta da Tijuca, biggest urban park in the world, Maracana stadium, events like Carnival, the beaches of Ipanema, Copacabana, Barra; the cultural corridor downtown...and more. Uff!