The best bet for swimming this close to the centre is around Urca District. There are small beaches on each side of the promontory on which this wealthy bairro stands, its name an acronym of the company that undertook its construction - Urbanizador Construção.

 Facing Botafogo, the Praia da Urca , only 100m long, is frequented almost exclusively by the small bairro 's inhabitants, while in front of the cable car station, beneath the Sugar Loaf mountain, Praia Vermelha is a cove sheltered from the South Atlantic, whose relatively gentle waters are popular with swimmers.

You should come to Urca at least once during your stay, anyway, to go to the Pão de Açúcar, which rises where Guanabara Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. In Portuguese the name means " Sugar Loaf ", referring to the ceramic or metal mould used during the refining of sugar cane. Liquid sugar cane juice was poured into the mould and removed when the sugar had set, producing a shape reminiscent of the mountain. The name may also come from the native Tamoyan Indian word Pau-nh-Açuquá, meaning "high, pointed or isolated hill" - a more apt description. The first recorded non-indigenous ascent to the summit was made in 1817 by an English nanny, Henrietta Carstairs. Today, mountaineers are a common sight scaling the smooth, precipitous slopes, but there is a cable car ride to the summit.

The cable car system has been in place since 1912; sixty years later the present Italian system, which can carry 1360 passengers every hour, was installed (daily 8am-10pm, every 30min; $8).

The cable cars have glass walls and once on top the view is as glorious as you could wish. Facing inland, you can see right over the city, from Centro and the Santos Dumont airport all the way through Flamengo and Botafogo; face Praia Vermelha and the cable car terminal, and to the left you'll see the sweep of Copacabana and on into Ipanema, while back from the coast the mountains around which Rio was built rise to the Tijuca National Park. Try and avoid the busy times between 10am and 3pm: it's best of all at sunset on a clear day, when the lights of the city are starting to twinkle. Leading down from the summit are a series of wooded trails along which you'll encounter curious small marmosets, and it's easy - and safe - to get away from the crowds.

On the Morro da Urca, the Beija Flor samba school performs every Monday at 10pm. This hill is also the location of the expensive Carnaval ball.

Rio de Janeiro
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Zona Sul

 Buzios

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