Rio's famed Copacabana beach is indeed a place of paradise. No matter if you hang out in the warm ocean, watch the locals play football or buy a (possibly poisoned) cocktail from one of the 'flying vendors', it suits a lot of peoples' taste. How can you not love that? But wait, ...
The sun loves it so much, it seems to direct all available sunlight to this place.
Sand Art
But then there is another gloomy side. When dawn sets in people get away fast and for a good reason. Teenage street gangs lurk around ready to take the valuables of those unfortunate enough to still relax on the nightly beach.
And every once in a while there is 'the purge'. Gangs come in hundreds sweeping over Copacabana grabbing as much stuff as they can carry. Take a look at this video, eery isn't it.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>This petty crime is almost exclusively carried out by young street kids, because they can not be held accountable and it's becoming a real problem. Go and fix your incentives Rio, free trade would help these kids to have some perspective. Until then don't go to the city center on weekends. I was lucky enough to escape a knife wielding kid ;).
Rio is amazing and for me the most beautiful of all cities, but just take care :-)
