JUSTIN YOUNG

Rio is a beautiful and huge city. I saw some of the best sunsets ever there and that’s saying something because I have lived on the California coast for most of my life. Rio’s beaches face east-west and you can watch both the sunrise and sunset on the same beach. Rio has mountains that meet the ocean and they are filled with dense tropical forests. The various rock formations and mountains are what causes the amazing sunsets (at least that’s my theory), but i’ve never seen anything like it, look at the sky in these photos filled with rays.

The beaches in Rio are often filled with scenes like this:

And when you’re not on the beach there’s so many great places to check out with views of the whole city. Here’s some panoramas of the city from various locations.

We were having drinks at a little bar in Guarda do Embau (map), when we saw lightning out over the ocean. The storm intensified and the lightning was lighting up the sky about every 20 seconds. I was able to snap these 6 photos with a hand held after about 100 tries.