On the east coast of Brazil, the city of
Rio de Janeiro hugs the steep hillsides that meet
the magnigicent Gunabara Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

Portuguese explorers are believed to have been the
first Europeans to see the bay in 1502; the area
was then occupied by Tupi Indians. Thinking they
had reached the mouth of some immense river, the
navigators called the bay "Rio de Janeriro,
(River of January) in honor of the month they
arrived.

It's difficult to imagine what they must have
thought, gazing to shore past 1,325-foot Sugar
Loaf Mountain which juts into the bay.
Other mountains loom at the north and west.

True European settlement didn't take place on the
bay until more than 60 years later, when the
Portuguese, who had claimed all of the region
as a colony in 1494, built a fort to keep French
traders away from their holdings. Today, Rio's
harbor and beaches are crowded and, in some
instances, polluted, but the natural beauty of
Brazil's mountains by the bay is unquestionable.