Globe Trekker

Rio De Janeiro City Guide (5x11)

: 30, 2002

Presenter Ian Wright travels the south-east coast of Brazil, where exports in sugar cane, gold and coffee once made Rio de Janeiro one of the greatest cities of the colonial era. Nowadays the capital city of Brazil and the carnival capital of the world is most renowned as the home of samba & soccer. After checking into a cheap hotel, Ian checks out the beach at Copacabana. After a white-knuckle bus ride to the overcrowded half-mile strip of seashore where the locals cariocas hang out, he's quick to find instruction in beach etiquette from two seasoned beach regulars. From the Centro district of the city Ian takes the only remaining tram in Rio to the wealthy district of Santa Tereza. Since 1971 this area has been called home by notorious ex-train robber Ronnie Biggs. He was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963 but escaped from his British jail and went on the run. He's still a wanted man in Britain but he's enjoying his twilight years in Rio running barbecues for carnival-goers and telling his life story to tourists. A tourist train takes Ian to the top of Corcovado, the 2,200 foot mountain at the top of which is the massive statue of Christ the Redeemer is the most enduring picture-postcard image of Rio as it towers over the entire city. He then takes in the Taguca National Park, a seventy square-mile tropical rainforest right in the centre of the city. The Peak at Pedra Bonita is a natural wonder, and for the best aerial views of Rio, Ian goes hang-gliding over the city vistas. The favellas of Rio are well off the usual tourist trail and many visitors don't venture into these shanty towns to find out how a third of the population lives. Ian is shown around this city-within-a-city by tour organiser Marcelo Armstrong. A short trip across the bay is the Museum of Contemporary Art at Niteroi. It's Rio's most modernist building and architect Oscar Niemeyer based his design on a champagne glass. He doesn't stop to admire