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WELCOME TO RIO DE JANEIRO

It’s known as the “Marvellous City”, and for a reason. Dramatically squeezed between massive rocks, the rainforest and the blue ocean, Rio de Janeiro offers views and landscapes unlike any other major metropolis in the world.

And a major city it is, with nearly 14 million people spread all over its metropolitan area, 6 million of them in Rio proper. They form a diverse and vibrant population, famous inside Brazil for its irreverence and fun-loving character, traits normally associated with Brazil as a whole. In that sense, one can say that Rio is Brazil, a city that defines the national character.

It does so with sights such as the worldclass Carnival parade at the Sambadrome, the surfers at Arpoador beach, the hang gliders taking off from Pedra da Gavea, and the obsessively-maintained bodies parading down the classic Ipanema and Leblon beaches.

Its variety of natural terrain makes Rio a hub for sports, as the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games testify. The native “Cariocas” love sporting activities, and proved so by swarming the Botafogo beach in the 2007 Red Bull Air Race, attended by over 1 million people. For 2010, the Air Race switches to larger Flamengo beach to accommodate such a crowd.

View some breathtaking snaps on Flickr

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Event Details

Location

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Map this address )

Start

MAY 8, 2010 at 12:00 AM

End

MAY 9, 2010 at 12:00 AM

About

About Rio de Janeiro’s notoriety for its natural wonders dates back to the early 19th century, when the city became the capital of the then-colony of Brazil with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family. It remained the administrative center of the country after its independence in 1822 and kept that status until 1960, when the power switched to Brasilia – but the true “majesty” stayed in Rio. The city is currently experiencing one of its most promising moments ever, after being chosen to host the first Olympic Games in South America in 2016. It will also receive yet another great sporting event in 2014, as one of the host cities for the World Cup in Brazil. Considered by many one of the most beautiful places in the world, Rio is surrounded by dozens of beaches, plus mountains formed by ancient rocks - one of which houses Christ the Redeemer, one of the new wonders of the world – and the Tijuca, the most extensive urban forest in the planet. These conditions make Rio a haven for extreme sports, from hang gliding to surfing and rock climbing. When nighttime comes, Rio also has tons of entertainment options. The nightlife in Lapa and the "Baixo Gávea" are world-class, with excellent bars, restaurants and clubs setting the capital’s cosmopolitan tone. On the south side or “Zona Sul”, next to the Guanabara Bay - the scenario for the 2010 round of the Red Bull Air Race - the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon serve as catwalk to bikini-clad beauties. And it stays like that all year long: temperatures rarely dip under 20°C and can exceed 40°C at the height of summer. The Red Bull Air Race has taken place once before in Rio de Janeiro - in 2007.