Happy 448th anniversary, Rio!

Today, first of March, the city of Rio de Janeiro is making 448 years. Happy birthday, Rio.

Rio de Janeiro, commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th largest in the Americas, and 26th in the world. Rio de Janeiro has become a home of a World Heritage Site named “Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea”, as granted by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 in the category Cultural Landscape. Residents of the city are known as “cariocas”.

Rio de Janeiro is the most visited city in the southern hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, carnival celebrations, samba, Bossa Nova, balneario beaches such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. Some of the most famous landmarks in addition to the beaches include the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer (“Cristo Redentor”) atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car; the Sambódromo, a permanent grandstand-lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival; and Maracanã Stadium, one of the world’s largest football stadiums. The 2016 Summer Olympics and the Paralympics will take place in Rio de Janeiro, which will mark the first time a South American or a Portuguese-speaking nation hosts the event.

History

Europeans first encountered Guanabara Bay on January 1, 1502 (hence Rio de Janeiro, “January River”), by a Portuguese expedition under explorer Gaspar de Lemos captain of a ship in Pedro Álvares Cabral’s fleet, or under Gonçalo Coelho. Allegedly the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci participated as observer at the invitation of King Manuel I in the same expedition. The region of Rio was inhabited by the Tupi, Puri, Botocudo and Maxakalí peoples.

The city of Rio de Janeiro proper was founded by the Portuguese on March 1, 1565 and was named São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, in honor of St. Sebastian, the saint who was the namesake and patron of the then Portuguese Monarch D. Sebastião.

When Prince Pedro I proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822, he decided to keep Rio de Janeiro as the capital of his new empire. Rio continued as the capital of Brazil after 1889, when the monarchy was replaced by a republic. On April 21 1960 the capital of Brazil was officially moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. Between 1960 and 1975 Rio was a city-state under the name Guanabara State (after the bay it borders). However, for administrative and political reasons, a presidential decree known as “The Fusion” removed the city’s federative status and merged it with the State of Rio de Janeiro, the territory surrounding the city whose capital was Niterói, in 1975.

Text: Wikipedia

Visit Rio!

Dancers Among Us

How many of us have felt an urgent and uncontrollable desire to dance at inappropriate times and places? And how many of us actually do? Why, as we get older, often suppress our excitement and enthusiasm, when we’re in public? At what point did we lose the magic of the fantasy world we have created when we’re child? These issues have been the motto for the American photographer Jordan Matter created the project “Dancers Among Us,” a representation of life as it really should be lived.

Inspired by the plays of his three year old son, Jordan Matter wanted to create photographs that show the world as if it were seen through the eyes of a child. While he was watching a performance of Paul Taylor Dance Company, he knew immediately he had found the perfect partner for this “kidding”. In your head, it all made sense: the dancers are storytellers, are trained to embody exciting moments and their bodies are an impressive combination athletic and artistic.

The project began in spring 2009. No trampolines or any other support used: only good will and many hours of training, and with just that, Jordan and the dancers created a fantasy world, offering us a lengthy and unusual look at scenarios and situations of day-by-day that are so familiar to all of us.

More info about:
Jordan Matter Official Site: http://www.jordanmatter.com/
Dancers Among Us Project: http://www.dancersamongus.com/index
Jordan Matter Blog: http://blog.jordanmatter.com/

Enjoy the gallery. Click to enlarge.

Rio de Janeiro, October 31, morning

Images of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taken on October, 31, by the morning. You can see the Corcovado Hill totally in clouds, and the Christ the Redeemer, one of the New Seven World Wonders, just above the clouds.
Nature has its caprices… Thanks to my dear friend §¡ñ¡ñhö™ (Tinkerbell) who send me the images by email.

Read more about the Corcovado Hill.
Read more about the Christ the Redeemer.