We were in Rio De Janeiro last week and it quickly shot into our top 5 cities in the world. If you’ve been you’ll know why, if not, imagine a beautifully dilapidated city on the beach, in the jungle, surrounded by mountains. Simply breath taking.

With the World Cup Soccer coming up in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, I guess it goes without saying that Rio is on the way up! And that goes for the real estate prices too – Rio is quickly becoming unaffordable for locals with even the newly reclaimed favelas being bought up by rich investors.

We were lucky enough to make some local friends and they put it like this:

“Rio has been tomorrow’s city for way too long… now is our time to grasp it and become today’s city”

Their perspective on Sydney was also insightful:

“Sydney is the Rio that worked”

Here’s a bit of love from Rio.

Filed under travel | 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “Love from Rio”

Wow! The last shot with the Christ the Redeemer statue is absolutely epic – like he’s lifted up to the clouds! I really couldn’t imagine Brazil or any other place unless someone posts about it from their personal point of view. Thanks for posting this, JP! Rio is, and was the exotic place I imagine it to be. Hope you had a great birthday. My birthday’s today, and it would be a dream to spend it there as well lol.

Comment by Ralph Gabriel Panzo on December 5th, 2011

Thx Ralph, the last shot was a real ‘right place, right time’ situation.

I highly recommend a trip over to Rio.

Comment by jonathanpease on December 7th, 2011

That last shot is incredible. Make me want to go, or at least urn to god !! thanks

Comment by scottontop on December 7th, 2011

Thanks for share this. I love Rio very much and was so pleased to hear that the Favela’s have been taken back. I now wonder whether or not the new ‘rulers’ are better than the old ‘criminals’. That’s the problem over there. Too much corruption, not enough punishment.

Very beautiful location though. Can;’t wait to get back there.

Love the photos JP

Comment by MT on December 7th, 2011

MT, true. Very little consequences.

You may find this article interesting –

Brazil is hoping that hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games will firmly establish the country as a global economic power. First, though, it must win back control of Rio de Janeiro’s vast ghettos. Not all of their methods have been well received.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,799164,00.html

Comment by jonathanpease on December 7th, 2011

wereu on the plane when u took the shot? very cool for a spurofthe moment photo.

just spent my birthday at home. Australia and Brazil are top places I wantto visit or have a birthday vacayy.

Comment by Ralph Gabriel Panzo on December 9th, 2011

Hi Jonathan ! I am Marcelo, the craftsmen who made the recycled paper-necklaces which you have required me and i have them prepared since the first of december as we said the other day in my house when you said that you were going to call me for retire them. please answer me as soon as posible because my work take me off so much time and for me time is like gold.
Cheers !
Marcelo Nencini.

Comment by Marcelo Nencini on December 9th, 2011

What are the other 4?
It’s hard to look at that photo with the houses, I swear they are going to fall right off. Even in the photo.
Agree with everyone else, that last photo is frikn amazing!

Comment by top5 on December 10th, 2011

Love the photos buddy. I assumed they were from a magazine. Well played

Comment by Jimmy on December 10th, 2011

Ralph, No I wasn’t on a plane! I took it from a place called Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Mountain_%28Brazil%29

I got lucky when the cloud cover broke.

Comment by jonathanpease on December 10th, 2011

Marcello, Please excuse our late reply. We had a long trip home!!

Don’t stress, Maddison will contact you tonight.

Again, sorry for the delay. Appreciate your work.

JP

Comment by jonathanpease on December 10th, 2011

Cheers Top5.

The other photos are as follows:

1. The view of Rio from Christ The Redeemer

2. An afternoon on Ipanema Beach

3. The Favelas directly behind our guesthouse (They literally surround the city)

4, 5, & 6. The road towards a deserted beach (We were lucky enough to meet some amazing locals who took us on a day trip… magical)

All shot on my Canon 7D.

thanks for asking :)

Comment by jonathanpease on December 10th, 2011

You really had a long vacation and lots of places and mountain tops climbed! I just CGO [cant get over] the photos especially the last one – so cool I thought you took it while on an aircraft or something. Just the best trips, JP. Thanks for sharing this

Comment by Ralph Gabriel Panzo on December 12th, 2011

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