Brazil is the largest and most populous country in Latin America, the fifth largest and fifth most populous in the world, named after brazilwood, a tree highly valued by early colonists. A former colony of Portugal, Portuguese is the official language. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI, a Spaniard, drew The Line of Demarcation to settle a dispute between Spain and Portugal, giving the eastern-most portion of South America (Brazil) to Portugal and the western portion to Spain. Brazil was explored in 1500. In 1502. Portuguese explorers entered Guanabara Bay and mistakenly thought it was the mouth of a river and called it Rio de Janeiro (January River). Brazil declared its independence from Portugal in 1822 and chose a new flag; the color green represents the jungles and the color gold and the diamond shape represents its mineral resources. The twenty three stars as they appear in the Southern Hemisphere represent the country’s states and its federal district capital of Brasilia. Scrolled on the globe are the words “Order and Progress”.

Brazil’s population of 186 million (fifth in the world) is 54% white (mostly Portuguese and Italian). 39% mixed (Portguese mixing with Native Brazilians) and 6% Black. Brazil has the largest Italian population outside Italy, with 25 million Italians. Brazil’s Black population descends from Africian slaves brought to the country from the 16th Century until the 19th Century. Slavery was abolished in 1888. Seventy-four percent of the population is Roman Catholic. Brazil is the country with the largest Catholic population in the world. Brazil has 25 million people living in poverty.

Rio de Janeiro is famous for its hotel-lined tourist beaches like Copacabana and Ipanema. (The Girl from Ipanema, famous in the mid 1960s, is often claimed to be the second-most recorded popular song in history). Between 10-13 million people live in the metropolitan Rio area, Brazil’s second largest city after Sao Paulo. Rio was the capital until 1960, suceeded by Brasilia. From 1808-1821, when Portugal was threathened by Napoleon, the capital of Portugal was transferred to Rio (the only Europoean capital outside of Europe). In 1822, Independence from Portugal was declared.

Soccer is very popular in Brazil, the early favorite to win the World Cup in 2006. Maracana Stadium, world’s largest capacity soccer stadium holds 200,000 spectators.

The worst of the poorer areas are the slums and shanty towns known as Favelas, often crowded onto the hillsides. A unique aspect of Rio’s Favelas is their incredible proximity to the city wealthiest districts. The Favelas are troubled by widespread drug-related crime, gang warfare and other related social issues.

We left Buenos Aires via Aerolineas Argentina on Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 2:45 p.m. from Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) and 1240 air miles later, we arrived in Rio de Janeiro International Airport (GIG) at 6:45 p.m. to begin our Bridging expedition of Brazil. (Rio is further east and one hour later than Buenos Aires). We flew over the Rio-Niteroi Bridge (see postcard of bridge here) as we approached the airport under very overcast skies. Rio had just finished 10 straight days of rain. (On the next morning, we were blessed with clear, sunny warm weather, and this great weather continued until we left three days later.) We were met at the airport by a private car arranged by our hotel. The airport is located 13 miles north of downtown Rio. In 40 minutes, we arrived at the Sheraton Rio Hotel & Towers, located in Leblon, south of Capacabana and Ipanema Beaches. Our first impression of Rio as we drove in, would be to label Rio de Janeiro as “Old Miami, with hills”. We chose this hotel because we looked for an American branded hotel and it was somewhat isolated from the busy and noisy main thoroughfare. As pictured here, the Sheraton Rio Hotel is quite literally “on the beach”, whereas all the other hotels are separated from the beach by the main street. We weren’t disappointed! This very nice hotel deserves our five bridges rating (at Bridgepix, we rate with bridges instead of stars). Our corner suite with lots of windows and sunlight faced the ocean as we heard the pounding surf. After checking in, we deceided to have dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. The salmon dinner was excellent. (After being spoiled in Buenos Aires, where a first class steak dinner with wine costs $70, it was back to reality in Rio where a first class seafood dinner with wine costs $200.)

On Sunday morning, November 13, 2005, after an excellent buffet breakfast in our hotel, we hired a private car to take us on a personal tour of downtown Rio. This private car service conveniently maintains a desk in the hotel lobby, and is regarded to be safer than hiring a standard taxi cab. After driving through Ipanema and Copacabana, we stopped at the Carioca Arches. The Carioca Aqueduct (1732), constructed to carry water from the Carioca River to the city, is also known as the Lapa Arches. In 1896, this bridge was coverted into a tram viaduct. The Santa Teresa Trolley Car carries passengers from the modern section of downtown Rio to the 18th Century artist community on Santa Teresa Hill. To see our bridge photos and bridge postcards of the Lapa Arches, please click here.

Near the Lapa Arches is the Saint Sebastian Cathedral. The conical shaped metropolitan cathedral, named after Rio’s patron saint was inaugurated in November 1976. It is estimated that 20,000 worshippers can stand facing the altar with its 30 foot suspended cross. Outside the cathedral is a statue of the late Pope John Paul, who visited this church. After touring this cathedral, we also stopped nearby at the Sao Bento Monastery, the best example of religious Brazilian baroque art built 1617-1641 by the Benedictines. The enormous amount of gold leaf makes it Rio’s richest Catholic church. We also drove by the area of the city that hosts the annual Mardi Gras or Carnival Parade. Click here to see an interesting picture of a canal bridge with the Carnival reviewing stands in the background. At noon, we returned to our hotel and had a great pizza lunch at poolside.

At 2:00 p.m. we joined a Gray Line bus for a tour including Sugar Loaf Mountain. After making too many stops at hotels along Ipanema and Copacabana Beaches, the tour didn’t actually start until 3:30 p.m. Sugar Loaf is a huge granite vertical rock at the entrance to the harbor. The original cablecar line up the mountain was built in 1912. In 1972, a new bubble-like, Italian-made gondola holding 75 passengers was installed to take passengers up every half hour in two phases: First, from the base to Urca Hill, 770 feet high, and Second, to Sugar Loaf, 1300 feet high with incredible views of Copacabana and the city.This famous landmark gets a rating of five bridges. A must see! The ride up the face of Sugar Loaf is a wee bit scary.

On the way back to our hotel after dropping off all the other tourists at their respective hotels, we finally arrived at 7:00 p.m. We would not recommend Gray Line Tours to see Sugar Loaf; rather it might be better to take a private car to the gondola base and do the tour yourself. For dinner, we took a private car to Satyricon (in Greek mythology, a god serving Bacchus-god of wine and wild merrymaking). Seafood with an Italian flair, expensive, but great service and great food. Located in nearby Ipanema several blocks from the beach, this restaurant has a pleasant atmosphere. Definitely, a rating of five bridges. It was so good, we would have dinner there again the next night.

On Monday, November 14, 2005, after another buffet breakfast, we joined a Gray Line tour bus for a trip to see the Christ the Redeemer Statue atop Corcovado (Hunchback) Mountain. After another long pickup route through Ipanema and Copacabana, we arrived at the Cog Railway station for the 20 minute trip up to the base of the statue. Built in 1931, the statue is 125 feet high, atop a mountain peak 2,330 feet high. Another outstanding view of Rio, this time from a different perspective - looking over the city out towards the harbor. In the early afternoon, we returned to our hotel to have another pizza lunch at poolside. After some timeout for R&R, we returned to Satyricon again for another fabulous dinner.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - Since our flight on Delta Airlines from Rio was at 10:45 p.m., we made previous arrangements to checkout of our hotel at 7:30 p.m. After another buffet breakfast at the hotel, we just relaxed at poolside and on the beach. We were surprised at how cool the Atlantic Ocean water was at this time of year (Spring in the Southern Hemisphere). In the early afternoon, we decided to have a big dinner/lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. After some more R&R, we packed and took a private car ride back to the airport. Arrived in Atlanta at 6:00 a.m. and had a Starbucks breakfast. At 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time, we arrived in Denver with some light snow on the ground from a previous day’s storm. The End to another great Bridgepixing Expedition.