Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil, on the South Atlantic coast. Rio is famous for its breathtaking landscape, its laidback beach culture and its annual carnival.
The harbour of Rio de Janeiro is comprised of a unique entry from the ocean that makes it appear to be the mouth of a river. Additionally, the harbor is surrounded by spectacular geographic features including Sugar Loaf mountain at 395 meters (1,296 feet), Corcovado Peak at 704 meters (2,310 feet), and the hills of Tijuca at 1,021 meters (3,350 feet). These features work together to collectively make the harbor one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
Rio de Janeiro will host many of the 2014 FIFA World Cup games, including the final, and the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, becoming the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. Rio de Janeiro is also currently hosting the 2013 World Youth Day with worldwide pilgrims coming along with Pope Francis. Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is truly one of the greatest spectacles in the world. For many cariocas (locals from Rio ), this event is the most highly anticipated of the year. In Rio, everything stops for most of a week and everyone lets their hair out and parties. Carnaval typically lasts from sometime Thursday and continues on through Ash Wednesday of the following week. This time is filled with various themed street parades which are so plentiful as to be able to pass almost the whole time in some parade or event. Also during this time are the amazing samba school competitions which take place in the specially built sambadrome.
Throughout Rio and practically at any time of the day, there is at least one street parade going on somewhere. These parades all have different themes. These themes range from cultural references, to traditional parades organized by the same management for many years to the more lively gay parades. The parades are basically just a very large block of people meandering slowly through the street along a programmed path following a lead group. The lead group ranges from a small group of drummers all the way to enormous specially made trucks with massive PA speakers on all sides and live singers on top. Some of the parades have a selected or traditional music they will sing continuously and others have various songs they sing. There is not anything more to them then just people out enjoying the scene and the music and, of course, a beer from one of the hundreds of vendors which accompany the block with their styrofoam ice chests on wheels.
