"Rio de Janeiro - a work in progress for... " a Rio de Janeiro Travel Page by dvideira

The physical aspects of the city are products of the mountain range , covered by the Mata Atlântica forest. They show great contrasts: mountains and sea, forests and beaches, stone walls rising abruptly from extended lowlands, all forming the landscape of rare beauty that has made Rio famous all over the world as the Wonderful City (Cidade Maravilhosa).

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The history of Rio de Janeiro, well, lets say it began from two "little mistakes"...

First of all, Brazil itself was discovered "by accident" when Pedro Alvares Cabral was sent on an expedition to India, got lost along the way and reached Bahia's coast in April 22, 1500.

Almost two years later, another expedition was sent to confirm the existence of the land Cabral claimed he had discovered. And so, in January, 1502 portuguese explorers headed by André Gonçalves reached the entrance of today's Guanabara Bay and mistook it for being a mouth of a big river ( rio, in portuguese ). Well, he brightly united the dots and concluded: It is January and that is a river hence we'll name it Rio de Janeiro ( January's River ). As you can notice, the name stuck !

People born in Rio are called "Cariocas" . Althoug you may think that name came from the rio word ( caRIOcas ), the origin of the name is a different one. The natives ( tamoio indians ) - who inhabited the land before the Portuguese arrived - used the name to describe the portuguese white people who set the first edification in a place where today is Flamengo neigborhood. Caraiba - white men + oca - house = carai'oca = carioca. Simple as that!

If you want to know a little bit more hystoric information about Rio,
click here.

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Building a travel page on our own cities can be a hard work.... I find myself wanting to show you the place I was born and raised in and I realize it is going to take a little time for me to have all the pics I never took - just because the subjects are so part of the daily scene .... and there are also places I never went to - just because they are so "there" and , oh.. I can see it tomorrow....

And now you have me having a lot of fun, playing tourist at home. Taking my camera with me wherever I go. Looking at every usual place with the eyes of "could it be an interesting tip to travellers???"

I am not a tourist guide and had never used a hotel in Rio myself... so I would not be that useful in suggesting accomodations to you - at least not at the present time - I'm going to do my homework, I promise! Meanwhile, there are lots of interesting and helpful travel pages in which you can find and book hotels. All I can say in advance is: there is a place for every kind of budget. For those who are coming in a really low budget, there are places like Flamengo and Catete which have plenty of cheap but decent hotels and hostels and are also easy to reach by subway.

Well, all I want to achieve is being able to show this city to you from my point-of-view, trying to share with you what I really love in it; the restaurants I would like my friends to enjoy, the sights I would feel like sharing with the ones I care. In a nutshell, I hope these pages may be useful to you all to feel like coming here and being welcomed with open arms just the way the Corcovado Christ will welcome you when you actually come here!

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