The Rio Times

Caminho do Céu, in Brazil's Minas Gerais, Where the Soul Stays Caminho do Céu is a high, dirt‑road ridge crossing in Serra da Canastra, Minas Gerais, widely described as one of Brazil’s most beautiful off‑road routes, suspended between deep green valleys and endless sky. Running along the crest between the Gurita and Bateia valleys near Delfinópolis, it combines long climbs, wide open views and a natural mirante that leaves many visitors saying their soul never really leaves this place.

Florianópolis, the “Magic Island” in Santa Catarina, Brazil Florianópolis, or “Floripa,” is an island city in Santa Catarina with more than 40 beaches, Atlantic forest hills and a skyline that mixes modern towers with fishing villages, which is why so many locals call it “the city of my heart” and swear they never want to leave. Often nicknamed “Ilha da Magia” (Magic Island), it is known across Brazil for its high quality of life, outdoor lifestyle and welcoming vibe, blending surfing, hiking and lagoon life with good infrastructure and a growing creative and tech scene.

Sea Rowing Between Ipanema and Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Between Ipanema and Copacabana, around the rocky point of Arpoador, rowing and outrigger‑canoe crews often head out into the open Atlantic, sliding along the line of beaches with views of the skyline on one side and the horizon on the other. Training or touring here at sunrise or sunset captures a very Rio lifestyle: exercising on the water with mountains and city icons in sight, then stepping back onto the sand to join the everyday rhythm of beach life just a few strokes from where you launched.

Isla de la Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina La Isla de la Recoleta is an elevated, Paris‑inspired pocket of Buenos Aires designed in 1906 by French landscape architect Joseph Bouvard, with diagonally laid streets, staircases with balustrades, period lampposts and French‑style apartment buildings around Plaza Mitre. In the early 20th century it filled with petit hôtels and mansions for the city’s elite, of which only the former Madero‑Unzué residence survives today as the British Embassy, while the surrounding streets and terraces still offer one of the capital’s most elegant, European‑feeling walks between the Biblioteca Nacional and Avenida del Libertador.