Why millions come to Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro gets a lot of bad press, in between the bloody gang wars, the rampant street crime and now a deadly wave of dengue fever. With all that death and destruction, you wonder why hundreds of thousands of people come here from around the world every year. Well, there's a reason why Rio is world famous, and I thought I'd provide just a little reminder. These are photos I've taken around town just over the past three weeks:

Comments

[Rogelio]

Wow, are those the local folks playing American futbol? Or just spring-breakers?

[Jack]

Yes, those are Brazilians playing American football. I wrote a story about those folks here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/jack_chang/story/28069.html

[gtsai]

so here's a question for all places in the world. is there any place someone says it is ugly? deep sea, deserts, tundras, u name it.
beauty is in our (human) hands. we create the beauty, and perpetuate it.
and so comes the ugly too.