Travel Guide

Copacabana is a borough located in the southern zone of the city Rio de Janeiro, known for its 4 km beach which is one of the most famous in the world.The district was originally called Sacopenapã until the mid-18th century. It was renamed after the construction of a chapel holding a replica of the Virgen de Copacabana, the patron saint of Bolivia. It was incorporated into the city on July 6, 1892.Copacabana begins at Princesa Isabel Avenue and ends at Posto Seis (lifeguard watchtower Six). Beyond Copacabana, there are two small beaches, one inside Fort Copacabana and other, right after it: Diabo Beach. Arpoador beach, where surfers use to go after its perfect waves, comes in the sequence, followed by the famous borough of Ipanema.
According to Riotur, the Tourism Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro, there are 63 hotels and 10 hostels in Copacabana.[1]

When arriving in April 1500 in the coast of what would later be known as Brazil, the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral found the primitive people who inhabited it.[24][25] They were divided in several distinct tribes, that fought among themselves[26] and that shared the same Tupi-Guarani linguistic family.[24] The “men were hunters, fishers and food collectors and the women were encharged of the reduced agricultural activity that was practiced.”[24] Some of the tribes were nomads and other sedentary; they knew the fire but not metal casting and a few were cannibals.[24] The settling was effectively initiated in 1534, when King Dom João III divided the Brazilian territory in twelve hereditary captaincies that would be governed by members of the lesser nobility or proceeding from educated families.[27][28] The experience revealed itself to be an utter disaster, and in 1549 the king assigned a governor-general to administrate the entire colony.[28][29]

Around 1530, the Tupiniquim (the same tribe that Cabral met)[30] and their bitter enemies the Tupinambá, the largest and most important tribes in Brazil, allied themselves with the Portuguese and the French, respectively.[26] Between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim “occurred a certain intermittently pacific inter-racial assimilation.”[31] While the Tupinambás, however, were mostly exterminated in long wars and mainly by European diseases to which they had no immunities.[32][33] The ones that survived were enslaved by other tribes or by the Portuguese or fled toward the countryside.[32][34] By the middle of the 16th century, sugar had become the most important item of the Brazilian exportations.[26][35] Thus, the Portuguese turned to other forms of man power to handle with the increasing international demand.[32][36] Enslaved Africans were imported and became the “basic pillar of the economy” in the most populous areas of the colony.[37][38]

The rise of agriculture and the subsequent appearance of permanent human settlements allowed for the multiple and overlapping beginnings of civilizations in South America.The earliest known settlements, and culture in South America and the Americas altogether, are the Valdivia on the Southeast coast of Ecuador.One of the earliest known South American civilization was at Norte Chico, on the central Peruvian coast. Though a pre-ceramic culture, the monumental architecture of Norte Chico is contemporaneous with the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. The Chavín established a trade network and developed agriculture by 900 BC, according to some estimates and archaeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín de Huantar in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters. Chavín civilization spanned 900 BC to 300 BC.

The Muisca were the main indigenous civilization in what is now modern Colombia. They established a confederation of many clans, or cacicazgos, that had a free trade network among themselves. They were goldsmiths and farmers.