Cantagalo Elevator Opens March
By Lindsay Spratt, Sub Editor RIO DE JANEIRO – The opening of a sixty-meter elevator providing access to the Cantagalo and Pavão/Pavãozinho communities is to open in March 2010. The elevator is to be built at the exit of the new subway station, General Osório, which will open in Ipanema on December 17. The elevator [...]
Iranian Muslim to Brazilian Baptist
By Juliana Tafur, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – In the streets of Rio de Janeiro, he passes for a Carioca, but he is not. His name is Bahman and he’s a refugee from Iran. In the second of a series of three interviews with international refugees living in Rio de Janeiro, Bahman spoke to [...]
Military Games Up Rio’s Olympic Bid
By Lindsay Spratt, Sub Editor RIO DE JANEIRO – The official presentation of the Fifth Military World Games was held last Friday September 26, in São João Fort, Urca. Officially dubbed ‘The Peace Games’, they will take place in Rio in July 2011 and attract over 5,000 athletes from 110 countries. As Rio waits for [...]
Violence: a Key Issue In Olympics Bid
By Jaylan Boyle, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – It has been a week of extraordinary theater in the run-up to the naming of the 2016 Olympics host country, including the announcement that American President Barack Obama will appear on behalf of Chicago’s bid in Copenhagen this week. Many analysts were surprised by Mr. Obama’s [...]
Macaé, Oil Rush Boomtown
By Sarah Coursey, Editor RIO DE JANEIRO – With an economy that grew 600 percent in the last ten years – a boom greater than China’s – Macaé is a city bubbling in new business, most of it lubricated by the same black gold that has sliced Brazil’s poverty in half in the new millenium. The [...]
Samba School Season Is Open
By Bruno de Nicola RIO DE JANEIRO – Samba school season is officially open. As the schools start preparing for their big week in February 2010, Gringos get the chance to attend a preview of the Sambodrome Carnival nights and shake their tail feathers. All the themes for the parade have been chosen and each [...]
Marc Chagall at Belas Artes
By Sarah Coursey, Editor RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s francophone year continues to bring top cultural programs to the Marvelous City. The work of one of France’s most well-known artistic exports, an immigrant himself, is coming to Rio. The exhibition “O Mundo Mágico de Marc Chagall – o Sonho e a Vida” (The Magical World [...]
Favela Mountain Bike Race
By Doug Gray, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Filip Polc of Slovakia was the winner in a historic mountain bike race this weekend in Rio de Janeiro. The Dona Marta community situated on the hill separating Laranjeiras and Botafogo, became the first favela to host an international sporting competition, and the spectacular surroundings and [...]
Maria Rita in Lapa
By Maíra Amorim, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Despite the fact that Maria Rita is the daughter of Elis Regina, one of Brazil’s greatest singers of all time, she claims she never wanted to be compared to her mother, who died from a cocaine overdose when Maria Rita was only five. However, when she [...]
Fluminense Close the Gap
By Doug Gray, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – A long-overdue win for Fluminense against Avaí on Sunday at the Maracanã closed the gap at the bottom of the league, but the team remains six points off safety. Under-fire manager Cuca will hope that it sparks a change in form that could still save their [...]