Rio - The world's greatest city?

Did I tell you that this is one of the world´s greatest cities??
I think it has actually just soared into the top spot in the "Places I want to live" list, knocking Barcelona off the top spot and sending Sydney, Nelson and Buenos Aires further down the list. I just cruised down to the beach yesterday evening for sunset and there were thousands of people just hanging out, BBQing, drinking, volleyballing, rollerblading, surfing, bodyboarding, sleeping, snogging, caipoeiring, singing, dancing and basically just having fun. I think having a beach increases a city´s liveability index by about 100%. Add to that the background of forests, lagoons, granite peaks and islands, add a shot of the great food and amazing juices, sprinkle liberally with Rio´s Joie de Vivre and stir it all together for instant happiness.

I reckon I will be the first gringo to visit Rio and not "do the Christ" as they say, i.e. visit the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of the hill. Rio has an uncanny knack of throwing up low flying clouds from nowhere, so the statue becomes completely invisible in minutes. Today´s plan of sightseeing was nipped in the bud by an errant cumulus so I went surfing instead... Maybe tomorrow, but hey I feel like a local and as we all know, locals never do any sightseeing in their own city. Either that or it means that I have to come back someday...