Rio de Janeiro, one of the oldest cities in Brazil. The first europeans to arrive in Rio were the Portuguese. In January 1st, 1502, an expedition led by Gaspar de Lemos reached the narrow entrance of the Guanabara bay. They arrived during the ebb tide, which led them to think they were in the mouht of a river (river=rio, January=janeiro, in Portuguese), so they name it Rio de Janeiro.
In 1555, a French expedition entered Guanabara bay to install a colony, the Antartic France. The French attempt to control the new land motivated the Portuguese to invest on a permanent settlement. In March 1st, 1565, another Portuguese expedition led by Estácio de Sá, anchored their ships in a small beach inside the Guanabara bay, close to where CBPF is located, to start a new city. This is the official date of Rio's foundation. Initially the settlement was just a fortress to face the French. After five years of bloody battles, the Portuguese forces prevailed. The original Portuguese settlement then expanded, occupying the area where today is downtown Rio. In 1763 the capital of the colony was moved from Salvador to Rio. In 1808 Napoleon invaded Portugal, but the Portuguese court managed to escape to Brazil. They stayed in Rio for 13 years. Three years after the return of the king to Portugal, Brazil became an independent country, with Rio being the caital. The city kept this status until 1961, when the Brazilian capital moved to the new city of Brasília.
Nowadays Rio is a modern, cosmopolitan and very large city, with a population of about 6 million people. A chain of mountains, covered with rain forest, divide the southern part of the city, bathed by the Atlantic Ocean, from the northern part. The city is limited to the east (in Rio the coast runs east-west) by the Baía de Guanabara, a large bay with many beaches and islands, including the one where the international airport is located. In the past decade years the city was expanded towards west, where one finds more beaches, lakes and mountains covered with rain forests. That's where the Olympic Park is located.
Rio is, perhaps, best known by the gorgeous nature, the Carnival and football. But the city has also a rich and diverse architectural patrimony. In January of this year, UNESCO declared Rio the first Architecture World Capital. The city has also an intense academic and cultural life, with seven large universities, as well as research institues for Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Engeneering, Social sciences, etc., as well as many museums. In addition to a touristic destination, Rio is nowadays an important centre for business and audio-visual production.
Five hundreds years of miscigenation - europeans, indigenous, africans and asians - yielded a society characterized by diversity and tolerance. Visitors will find a very friendly population and a warm recepetion.
