Rio de Janeiro is one South America's biggest casualties of the tourism industry and crass media images. The reality of travel in Rio is barely seen for all the images of scantily clad samba queens in sequin bikinis. The result is that half the travelers heading to Rio think they're off to a land of beaches, sex, samba and football 24 hours a day. Either that or they've seen City of God recently and they sign their last will and testament before jumping on the plane to Brazil in the first place.
Brazilians call Rio 'the Marvellous City, a cidade de maravilha and you can see their point; if you ignore for a moment the poverty, the congestion and the crime, then Rio de Janeiro is one of the most spectacular places you're ever likely to see. Or at least it certainly was before all the tower blocks went up, blocking the view. Everywhere you look there's a beach or a lagoon and behind these rise tropical hills, like giant mole hills.
Look a bit closer at these tropical hills though and you'll see the favelas, makeshit concrete housing built by the slum dwellers. No one else built on the hills as it was considered unsafe - and it's not uncommon for hundreds of Brazilians in the favelas to die during landslides - but for the time being it means that, for once, the poor get the ocean views.
The favelas are the first clue to understanding that Rio de Janeiro is not just about girls wearing dental floss bikinis on the beach. Whilst there is plenty of that. Rio is also a city home to ten million people, most of whom don't live within walking distance of a beach.
The odds are that if you're travelling to Rio de Janeiro then you won't see the main part of the city but will stick to the zona sul, the affluent neighbourhoods in the south with the best beaches. Here are all the hotels, the nice housing and a good deal of the upmarket nightlife in Rio.
Onl if you speak Portuguese or have Brazilian friends are you likely to see the rest of the city where there are samba rehearsals in the streets but where there's also a good deal of tension between the bandits and the military police.
The beautiful beaches of the south of Rio are situated around the neighbourhoods of Copacobana, Ipanema, Leblon and out to Barra de Tijuca. The beaches join up like a jigsaw pattern and it's easy to get disorientated. But then all the traveler need do is look up at Christ the Redemptor hundreds of metres above Rio and find his bearings. The Christ himself looks down 24 hours a day in wonder at what became of his Marvellous City.