Rio & the Best Of Brazil Alive

The Greenbergs, owners of The Complete Traveller bookstore, have been spending part of each year in Brazil since the 1980s.Rio is nicknamed Ciudade Maravilhosa – the Marvelous City – and with good reason. It is both a great metropolis and a great resort. The city is the beach and the beach is the city, with over 30 miles of thick, white sandy beaches. The most celebrated Carnaval in the world is here, not to mention Copacabana and Ipanema beach. Sao Paolo, the Amazon jungle and Manaus, the Matto Grosso, Recife, Salvador, Iguacu Falls, Brazilia – all the highpoints of the country are covered.How to get around, special discount cards, tips on taking the subway, ferries and taxis, the best shops (80% of all the colored stones in the world are found here and it’s a great place to buy gemstones), hotels & restaurants, the museums, a guide to every beach, exploring the city on foot. Street fairs, from the Hippie Fair to the Babilonia Fair.Brazil is a fascinating mix of three distinctive cultures, European, African and Indian, with a smorgasbord of cuisines and regional dishes. Menus reflect the fact that Brazil is the biggest beef producer and exporter in the world. Oscar Niemeyer, one of Brazil’s most famous architects, is best known for his design of United Nations headquarters in New York. He was the moving force and architect of Brasilia, the futuristic capital of Brazil. Almost the size of the United States this mammoth country embraces half the land mass of South America.Discovered by the Portuguese in 1500, the land was densely forested so lumber became the primary export until it was superseded by a growing sugar market. For 300 years, it was ruled from Portugal, but as Napolean’s armies advanced on Lisbon in 1807, Prince Regent Joao decided to move his family and court to Brazil. He arrived with 15,000 noblemen and occupied a lovely building called the Imperial Palace, which you can visit today. The Brazilians were delighted and the large number of noblemen gave Rio a European veneer. Palaces were built, surrounded with magnificent parks and gardens. They still give Rio a unique ambiance.