Rio de Janeiro – One of the World’s Most Beautiful CitiesWritten by Tom Schmidt
To read this article with pictures, please copy and paste following address into your browser: http://www.SearchingCities.com/rio_de_janeiro_travel.htm Rio de Janeiro is my favorite city in world. The main thing I am impressed with is natural beauty of one of world's largest cities. I call "Urban Jungle," which I suppose has a double entendre. One of my friends lives in an area just past Ipanema called Leblon. He walks down street his apartment is on to get to beach. It's about a five block walk. Meanwhile, although there are highrises and busy streets and restaurants and shops, it's in middle of a jungle. Somehow, this factor makes living there much less stressful. The view from his 12th floor balcony looks over mountainside and mansions that cover it. Of course, you can also see ocean. Here's a quick list of tips for your trip to Rio: 1) Find a good driver and get his cellphone number. It's better to have someone who knows to expect you than to rely on a cab. Take his advice as to where to go, and, more importantly, where not to go! This one factor alone will dramatically improve your security while in Rio. 2) Eat at following restaurants: Puercao (Churrascuria), Esplandada Grill, Leblon Sushi (Best Sushi in World, bar none. Also a great “see and be seen” place. They were shooting a commercial right next to me last time I was there.), Esch Cafe (for drinks, light snacks, and cigars), Satyricon (fancy seafood place). 3) Stay at Ipanema, not Copacabana. It's worth extra money because it's safer, more classy, cleaner, and less crowded. 4) Caesar Park Towers is a great place to stay in a great location and has great service if you can handle price. 5) Eat lots of Pao de Quesia. You'll understand when you get there. Brazilian food is a little salty, but it's really good. The salads with hearts of palm are great. There are lots of rice dishes that are fabulous, many with bits of dried meat in them. Make sure to go to a Churrascuria while you are there. Unlike copies in US, most of Churrascuria's in Rio/Sao Paulo have most amazing buffets you've ever seen. 6) Remember that in Rio, most "discos" are actually pick up locations for prostitutes (yes, that's true for famous club "Help" too), so find a local (or a hotel concierge) to recommend a place if you are really going out to dance. 7) Cabo Frio, about two hours from Rio, has great fishing. You can catch your fill of sailfish and often blue marlin. Paulo, world record holder for largest blue marlin ever caught lives a few hours east and north of Rio. It's worth ride to charter his boat and have him take you out. He also has a couple of apartments that he rents out to fishing clients. I highly recommend you go stay with him and utilize his skills at finding fish. 8) Beach. Beach. Beach. More stuff to see and do in Rio: Christ, Redeemer Statue On top of Corcovado Mountain at a height of 710 meters, statue of Christ Redeemer is one of world's most-visited monuments. Hire a driver and have him take you through mountains and Atlantic Rainforest up to statue. Along way and once you arrive, you will see several amazing views of Rio from many different angles. From top, view is nothing short of phenomenal. You can see Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Botanical Gardens, Jockey Club, and Lagoon. The entire city spreads out in an unbelievable panorama during day, and it glistens beautifully after dark. Botanical Gardens Rio is home to an impressive Botanical Garden. You will find many examples of plant life in this huge garden. The Imperial Palms are among its most impressive attractions, planted in 1809 by Prince Regent D. João VI.
| | A Wine Drenched Tour Along The Red Route of Paarl, South AfricaWritten by Gregory Hudson
The wine tradition in Paarl is older than roots of aging Oak Trees that line its Cape Dutch streets. The first European settlers arrived at Cape of Good Hope in 1652, planting seeds that solidified Cape's reputation as a wine growing heaven. Now that work has already been done, what else can you and I do but savour delicate fruits pressed with decades of winemaking experience and travel newly formed routes leading us to finest wines in world. Forget majesty of Drakensberg Mountains, try to ignore historic monuments perched loftily upon pearly hills, kind of wine tasting to be done in Paarl will require every ounce of your concentration. Now that we know what we are going to be doing in Paarl, apart from enjoying scenery, let's make a journey into winelands, delving into present day winemaking communities, uncovering their interesting attributes and tracing those lively wines to hideaways so often missed by multitude. Along way, if we're lucky, we may make acquaintance of a genuine Garagiste, a class of heretic garage winemakers shunned in France by old school traditionalists because of stir their independently crafted wines create. There might be a hint along way as to where we might discover one of those who make these “Vins de Garage”. The mixture of Paarl's perfect climate and their special skills is sure to be very rewarding. We start our journey at entrance of Hugenot Tunnel, breach to longest wine route in world, also known as Route 62. But we go no further; what we are mostly concerned with is infamous Red Route... The Red Route The Red Route, as you can imagine, is named because of large amount and quality of red wines along its relaxing meander. It was formed by a collaboration of wine producers known as Paarl Vintners (Wine Merchants). The Vintners diligently plotted a wine route for an estimated 24 participants, all found within Paarl Valley. One or two of these include De Zoete Inval Estate owned by Frater family, who have been making wine here for more than 115 years. The Rhebokskloof Estate has also been producing wine since 1692. Unfortunately, wine from that early period has already been consumed. The Red Route is without question a collection of most renowned wine producers in world. Any effort made in finding them would not in any way be an inconvenience to your taste buds. The Red Route's Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are undoubtedly best in world. Fairview Not strictly a wine route, Red Route is also, by happy coincidence, a cheese route. Which brings us to our next stop along our journey - Fairview.
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