Welcome to Rio
Rio is beautiful. This is, thank God, ¹
a manifestation of nature’s determinism. There is no way of escaping from this finding, evidenced in the contour of the bay designed by Sugar Loaf and the Corcovado. In the sinuous curve of Copacabana Beach or in the wooded hills that form a girdling belt of shapes outlined in an unretouchable landscape, Rio is beautiful. But while this natural beauty is an endowment with which the Carioca lives from the moment he is born, what is difficult is to allow the city to continue being beautiful. The inhabitant of Rio, like a few others, has made an effort down through its history to complement this beauty. In occupying this scenic setting, the Carioca has been driven forward, despite a history that has not always been calm and gentle. The colonial power, slavery, political struggles of the Court, and later those of the capital of the republic, all conspired to make the city much more something to use than something to serve as usufruct. But this being, shaped by such numerous and powerful adversities, took all this in his stride, and out of the bitter made the sweet. The Carioca invented himself despite everything and everyone. From the remains, he constructed a culture. From the forbidden, he reinvented faith. From the sadness, he extracted the fiesta. From deprivation, he created luxury. And thus, from this inexhaustible capacity for living with imagination, the Carioca defined the profile of his city. It was not by chance that Rio has become the sounding board that announces and reverberates, that makes noise and calls the attention of the rest of the country. And this without any hegemonic pretensions. Rio which it is.

¹ Texto extraído do livro: Rio de Janeiro continua lindo, Memoria Viva Cultural LTDA., S.9  

Population
Population in Rio de Janeiro has 6 million inhabitants and Brazil about 180 million made up predominately of the white, black and native Indian races. The population is mostly concentrated along the coast, mainly in the southeastern region, where the two largest metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are located.

Climate
Climate varies according to latitude and altitude. Seasons are the exact reverse of those in the U.S. and Europe (except in the North of Brazil - North of Equator!). The average yearly temperatures are about 82F in the North and 68F in the South.

Official Currency
Official Currency are Real (R$) and Centavos. 1 R$ = 100 Centavos. One should exchange to local currency. In Rio it’s recomanding to bring Dollars or Euros. Changing is possible in any exchange shop.