Rio de Janeiro is a city in Brazil. It was formally the capital of Brazil, but was changed to Brasília for encouragement of development of the nation’s interior. Rio is a seaport in the southeastern region of Brazil, and is the nation’s second largest city after Sao Paulo. Guanabara Bay, Rio’s harbor, was discovered by Portuguese navigators on January 1st, 1502. They thought that the bay was the mouth of a large river, so they named it Rio de Janeiro meaning, “River of January.” This also became the name of the area on the western side of the bay, between the mountains and the sea. I think that Rio is one of the most beautiful and fascinating places in the world. The area around Rio consists mainly of mountains and plains. The plains contain shallow lagoons that restrict the space available for urbanization. The many rivers in the urban area are small in the mountains, and large in the plains. There are 113 small islands around the city of Rio. The largest is Governdor, where there are 2 of Rio’s 3 main airports. Rio is located north of the Tropic of Capricorn, which makes its climate humid tropical. However, there are distinct local climates within its small area, called microclimates. There is a pleasant microclimate in the Southern Zone of the city, a warmer microclimate in the Northern Zone, and a hot microclimate in the lowlands. Rio mainly has sunny days all year round, and the beaches are always busy with tourist and locals. The average temperature in July is sixty-eight degrees, and in February it’s seventy-nine degrees. The average annual rainfall is forty-four inches. Rio was built around the mountains and along the valleys. They had to drain swamps, remove hills, and fill parts of the bay with land. Due to its unique geography, it’s divided into 3 zones of contrasting physical and social features, the Southern, Central, and Northern Zones. The Southern Zone has the most pleasant environment. Located in