RIO DE JANEIRO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 236, 5 October 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

RIO DE JANEIRO.

BRAZIL’S GREAT CAPITAL A CITY LIKE NO OTHER. (By MARC T. GREENE.) Rio do Janeiro, “Queen of South America,” “Queen of Sheba of World Capitals,” proud recipient of a hundred more laudatory designations, is one of the world traveller’s delights and one of his ever-enduring memories. There may be finer cities from an architectural viewpoint, there may be harbours equally impressive; but nowhere on the globe is there such a combination of the two as glorifies the capital of Brazil.

It has been said of one city and another that they are more than cities—they are experiences. Rio de Janeiro is more than both. It is a climax of travel, an epic of adventure, a sight to be anticipated throughout a lifetime. When you have seen Rio you have seen the best the world has to offer in beautiful cities. Others are different and others have their own peculiar appeals, their own interest and their own charm. But there is only one Rio. The silly old saw that used to be applied to Naples might well be paraphrased here. “See Rio de Janeiro and live.” A Peculiar Allurement. And, mark you, you do live in Rio. The Brazilians, indolent, pleasure-loving, friendly, place material well-being and creature comforts above most other things. They provide for them m "onerous measure, and it is commonly understood that in their capital you can find anything you wish, do anything that pleases you, and live altogether as suits your individual conception of the fitness of things, fearless of restraint, heedless of convention, sure of no interference by anyone. It was an American diplomatic official, long resident in Rio, who applied the rather striking appellation “Queen of Sheba of World Capitals. And he meant more than mere beauty of scenery, of location, of gaiety, of climatic perfection. He meant that, as a city, Rio de Janeiro possessed all those compelling characteristics commonly attributed to the seducer of the wisest of men. For there is a sensuousness about the Brazilian metropolis, a curious individuality that partakes of the elusive allure possessed by certain women, among whom, if history is correct, the Ethiopian queen ranked high. Or, to put it another way, if ever a city was strong in the quality colloquially known as “it” this voluptuous sovereign of the south is the one. Whether it is because of its soft, langourous climate, its warm, never-failing sun, its sapphire surrounding seas or its famed beautiful women, little matters. The fact is that Rio captures your senses as it captures the admiration of your eyes, as soon as you enter its matchless harbour. The longer you remain the more hopelessly are you enmeshed in the spell of a city that is

like none other, a city that lures you as the tropics always lure, that greets you with the stateliness of a great lady, yet whispers to you with the blandishments of the courtesan, that promises you anything you may want, and is quite capable of fulfilling the promise. Nearly Two Million People.

Rio de Janeiro to-day, having grown rapidly since the war, numbers close on to 2,000,000 of people, almost four-fifths as large as the stupendous Argentine capital a thousand miles to the south. It lies just within the tropics and so does it spread across the country, up and down the indented coast and among the hills and valleys that compose all the seaward part of Brazil, that its area is measured in the amazing figures of 24 miles one way and 36 the. other. Its glorious avenues, tho Avenida Rio Branco, commercial thoroughfare of the city, Avenida Beira Mar, Avenida Atlantica and a wonderful system of parks, gardens, plazas and esplanades constitute a beauty of civic planning and designing unequalled throughout the world.

The harbour is full of islands, but outstanding -among all its wonderful features is the great Rao de Assucar, the “Sugar Loaf,” a huge pinnacle of rock, summit, doubtless, of some peak mostly submerged in a prehistoric cataclysm, which rises directly out of the sea to a height of 1500 feet. Atop this, as you enter Rio’s harbour, you are surprised to see a small building. And then, as you peer more closely, you note that what looks like a thin thread connects this building atop the rocky pinnacle to another and larger summit a quarter of a mile away. Then presently comes your crowning astonishment. For along this seemingly thin thread is creeping a speck altogether suggestive of a spider making a cautious way on his tenuous web. The speck mounts from the lower rocky summit to the crown of the Sugar Loaf, the last part of the ascent being at an angle of more than 45 degrees. High Above the Harbour. What you are seeing is the most remarkable cable-way in the world. Here, more than 30 years ago, a GermanAmerican conceived and caused to be executed a project even more daring in its conception than in its execution, a connection by wire rope of these two summits, a quarter of a mile apart and far above the waters of the Rio s fair harbour. And what looks to you like a thin thread is really a double cable, each of which is three and a half inches in diameter, while the seeming speck is a miniature trolley-car able to carry 22 persons. For vears it has been carrying them, and although the double cable arrangement is • intended to insure against possible accidents, never has there been the’least suggestion of one. Yet when, having entered the car upon the lower peak, you set forth along that thin line of wire on the ascent to the Sugar Loaf far away and high above you feel the thrill that comes but once in a -lifetime. But this is only one of the wonders of Rio de Janeiro. Ahead yonder, as vour eyes turn landward toward the line of emerald hills that is the backaround of this city beyond compare, atop the highest peak of them all stands an heroic statue. Upon its whiteness the tropic sun gleams, as at night the floodlights bathe it in brilliance. It is world-famed statue of Christo

Redemptor, Christ the Redeemer,. looking down upon the harbour and city of Rio de Janeiro. ' There it stands, the arms outstretched as if laying a benediction upon all this beauty and glory. Ono hundred feet high is it, and the summit upon which it towers is 2500 ft above the sea. From the harbour it seems to stand alone, occupying all of tho rocky pinnacle. In reality there leads to its base a remarkable cogwheel cable railway, and when you get there you find room for a thousand people, even a refreshment stand.

At night, as the floodlight makes the great statue to gleam in all its glory it stands forth strikingly against the dark sky and is visible miles at sea. And sometimes when the cloud wreaths hang about the summit of the Corcavado, the name of the mountain, the statue appears and disappears among them like a sublime revelation. It is an unforgettable spectacle, and not less so is the sight of the great city from the statue’s base as at twilight the lights come on, the brilliance of the city,-the glow of the circle of beauty around the harbour, the line of lights along the distant beaches, the dots which gleam like fireflies among the valleys where the far-reaching suburbs of Rio extend inland toward the mountain ranges which divide civilised Brazil from the little known interior. Cheap Living. Of all times to visit Brazil there has never been one like the present and there is not likely to be. Not many years ago all os South America was known to be almost prohibitively expensive for tourists. But times have changed since then. The Brazilian unit of currency, the milrei, is at the moment less than threepence —and it has a good deal of value, too. For example, you pay at the best hotels, which are as good as any anywhere, 50 milreis and upward. At others, not so sumptuous but amply adequate, you pay from 35 milreis downward to as low as 15. This mind you, includes everything, and food in Brazil is notably good, this being a rich producing country. Other costs are in proportion. You may ride miles on a tram car for a penny. You pay sixpence, or at the most ninepence for a haircut. In the best of restaurants you eat sumptuously for 2/. In fact, in the case of everything not imported Brazil is probably the country of lowest expense in all the world to-day. Imported things, unfortunately, are at the other extreme, for Brazil is protection-mad and adds to import tariffs frequently. It is, then, a great travel experience, this of a visit to Rio de Janeiro. Here is a great city that in many respects is like a kind of extravaganza, a spectacle on an enormous stage. There are present all the elements of such a spectacle, people of every race and colour, gaily-dressed women of a beauty to compare with any land on earth, a natural setting of land and sea with which none other may vie, a climate that in winter is all but perfect, living expenses at the world’s minimum, agreeable people, easy-going, care-free and indifferent to convention, a country which has never felt the grip of depression and there! ore has not seen the face of its society undergo a slow but easilymarked change, a life which knows not “bustle” and concerns itself rather considerably with the material comforts and the’ pleasures of the senses. Such is Brazil and such, above all, is Rio de Janeiro.