Rio Atlântico

Rio brings a river in its very name, and since it was born thus, they thought it was: the mouth of a river. Guanabara Bay deceived the navigators, perhaps by presenting itself with so many fresh waters that fed it. What was actually true, at the moment the foreigners saw it for the first time, is that its Atlantic Ocean was nourished by it, and in it, dolphins and whales that circulated in its calm waters would frolic. It was a haven that the sea waters found to relax, to let themselves be enveloped by the fresh and voluminous waters of the rivers that descended from the mountains of the Serra do Mar. Today, many of these rivers are channeled, they became parched and were even transformed into ditches. But, the city is still marked by these waters, which sometimes rebel and escape from the undergrounds in which they were confined, and from the rectilinear layouts imposed upon them. They overflow, uncontrolled, and reclaim their territories, they knock down, destroy, they take revenge. And when the ocean enters a surge, raising its waves and advancing over the sands of the beaches and over the rocky reefs, many channels, lagoons, and rivers of Rio also rise, connected as they are. Ah, the force of the waters…