Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/299622
São Roque in the city's working-class Tancredo Neves district. Across Salvador, there are 1,200 of these Candomblé terreiros or temples, four times the number of Catholic churches here, and a fraction of the tens of thousands of terreiros across Brazil. Once forbidden by Catholic authorities as voodoo, they serve today as centres of local social life, providing spiritual guidance and herbal medicines. e hallmark of Candomblé is prolonged rhythmic drumming because, in Afro-Brazilian belief, the gods like to party. And it is the language of drums that calls them down from the sky. In fact, it is this drumming, far louder than the hubbub of Salvador's traffic, that indicates I'm approaching Terreiro São Roque. Crowds of white-dressed celebrants, the women in magnificent turbans, enormous bustled skirts and enough necklaces, bracelets and rings to stock a modest jewellery store, fill the terreiro's sidewalk and courtyard, and a larger crowd has sardined itself inside the small temple. e packed dance floor – where gyrating initiates await the gods' arrival – is covered with scattered cinnamon leaves. Here magic happens. The drummers keep up a relentless beat. Hands clap. Chants syncopate. Rio: hot! hot! hot! Global attention turns to Brazil over the next two years as, first, the FIFA 2014 World Cup of soccer opens its month-long run. Kicking off June 12 in Sao Paulo, the games will wrap in Rio de Janeiro's historic Maracanã Stadium. Then in 2016, Rio hosts the 31st Summer Olympics. While millions will be drawn to Rio's sports facilities, travellers will also want to explore the city's many other attractions. A great base is the tree-lined district of Ipanema, located adjacent to what is often called the "world's sexiest beach." Why? Speedo-clad footvolley players; toned, tanned and tattooed surfers; and thousands of bronzed women wearing microscopic tangas. Away from the city's beaches and the inevitable 710-metre-cable-car ascent to the famed mountaintop Christ the Redeemer statue, here are a few lesser- known Rio delights: • The new five-station Teleférico aerial gondola transit line links a series of Rio's hilltop favelas. Now safe for tourists, these fascinating working-class neighbourhoods are home to many of the samba schools that parade during Rio's annual Carnival. • Helisight offers thrilling tours over the city's favelas, famous peaks and 90 kilometres of beaches. • Rio's 138-hectare Botanical Garden provides a quiet escape into a green Eden of winding pathways and 8,000 varieties of plants and trees. –D.W. visitbrasil.com, fifa.com/worldcup, olympic.org/rio-2016-summer-olympics cameron spencer/getty images daniel wood p32_39Brazil.indd 37 14-04-10 2:26 PM