Couples reign supreme in Rio

'In this city, romance is not an option - it's an obligation'

RIO DE JANEIRO - Rio is a romantic city. Often, too romantic. Lovers

kiss with almost pathological indiscretion. At bus stops, waiting at

traffic lights, in bank queues - no public space is too inappropriate. Rio,

after all, is the city where couples jog holding hands.

But who can blame them? There are so many points of awesome natural

beauty that seem to demand you share the experience.

Nightfall on Ipanema beach as the sun sets by the twin-peaked Dois Irmaos,

10m (30ft) high waterfalls in the Tijuca rainforest, the view of Christ the

Redeemer from the top of the Sugar Loaf. All are on a scale that postcards

and photographs can't begin to capture.

Sometimes it is hard to believe Rio is a proper city. It is more like a sampler

for a geographical encyclopedia. It has mountain, jungle, flatlands, beach,

ocean, bay and islands. Human development has given it social extremes too

- from the cobbled streets and Portuguese colonial architecture of Santa

Teresa to the LAwannabe freeways of Barra de Tijuca, from the endless favela

shantytowns to the fading glamour of Copacabana's art-deco frontage.

All cities in Brazil have areas of great poverty and affluence, but only in Rio are

they, virtually, sitting on top of each other. On the hills that jut out from

in-between the middle-classes' gated condominiums are anarchic rashes of

cobbled-together shacks where cocaine gangs reign supreme. It is a peculiar

inversion of the social hierarchy of most cities. In Rio all the homes with the

best views are the cheapest, roughest and least desirable places to live.

The close mixture of rich and poor gives Rio a special rawness, and it is also

one explanation for Rio's reputation for violence.

There still is a lot of violence, but almost all of it is within the favelas and

sensible visitors should feel no more vulnerable than when in New York or

London.

For most Cariocas - as Rio residents are called - life revolves around the

beach. The city is blessed with magnificent coastline that includes the

beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Barra de Tijuca. Each has its sights. A

3km-plus (two-mile) crescent with the Sugar Loaf on your left and the military

fort on the right, Copacabana is the grandest if also the dirtiest and busiest.

You can tell you've arrived at Posto 9 in Ipanema by the wafts of marijuana

floating in from the sea. Posto 9 used to be the bohemian place to hang out

and now is the meeting point for Rio's fashionable crowd. If you want to see

why Brazilians have a reputation for having the best physiques in the world,

then the Praia do Pepe at Barra is a Babylon of bodies beautiful.

For a day at the beach to be enjoyed fully, do as the locals do.

Rent a parasol, sit in a tiny fold-out chair and check out the people around

you. Buy mate tea drinks from the ambulant sellers and if you're hungry ask

one to barbecue some cheese on a stick sprinkled with oregano. Don't read a

book; no one does. The newspaper, maybe.

Every now and again dip in the sea to cool off. You won't be able to swim

because it's a sea of quite aggressive breaking waves.

The beach day ends almost inevitably at a "boutequim" - Portuguese-run

street bars where you buy small glasses of ice-cold draught beer, called

chopp (pronounced shoppy), and snack on shrimp-filled potato croquettes. In

Ipanema, the Bofetada on Rua Farme de Amoedo and the Bracarense in Rua

Jose Linhares in Leblon are always full of high-spirited Cariocas in their sandy

swimwear.

A panorama I have never bored of is watching the sun go down from the top of

the Sugar Loaf. The experience is worth the hype, the queue for the cable car

and the other tourists getting in the way.

It is said that Rio marks the point where the European, prosperous, temperate

south cone of Latin America meets the poor, chaotic, tropical north. The city's

charm is the combination of both sides.

As you move out of the sterile safety of Ipanema and Copacabana you are

almost moving continents.

Santa Teresa is what most people expect of a Latin American capital. It is a

hilly area where the Portuguese settlers built their mansions, set just behind

the city centre. Nowadays, the beautiful colonial buildings are largely in

disrepair and favelas have creeped up around them, but it retains an

enchanting feel of the past.

In the evening, Santa Teresa comes alive. It is the main bohemian area of the

city and the strip of bars on Rua Almirante Alexandrino start to pack out after

midnight. Down from the hill is Lapa, another bustling place at night. If you

want to have an "authentic" good time, you're more likely to find it here than in

anywhere listed in a guide book.

By day the Coisa da Antiga in the Rua do Lavradio is an antique shop. By

night you can come in and sit among the carpentry and listen to a samba

group. To say it's a show is to stretch the point. The musicians sit around a

table playing their music and people dance in between the tables. Like most

samba haunts the age range is from 18 to 80, and everyone ends up on their

feet.

But even in restaurants it's hard to escape the mood of coupledom that

pervades the city. Dishes are invariably for two people. It's as the mayor has

decreed: "if you're not in love, then don't go out." Rio is a city where romance

is not an option - it's an obligation. (Guardian News Service)