For you adventurous people, Rio is a great place to hang-gliding. The place to go to arrange the jump is Sao Conrado Beach. Many of the nicer hotels already have contacts with licensed hang-gliders and will make the arrangements for you to be picked up at the hotel. This obviously is twice the price of doing it your own way. There are air-conditioned buses that you can take to Sao Conrado for a couple of dollars. One line of buses, because of the air conditioning is referred to as "frescao" which means really fresh in Portuguese.

These buses run along the major avenues in the south zone of the city and go out to the beach where you'll meet the people who do the jumps. Negotiate the price. I ended up paying half of what the hotel concierge had told me it would cost if he called a guy from the hotel I was staying at. You'll be asked to sign a piece of paper admitting that you know the risk you'll be taking and that you have a good bill of health both of which are legal obligations.

The people who you'll jump with then drive you up to the top of the mountains of the Tijuca Forest and there you jump from a spot called Pedra Bonita at an elevation of about 1500 feet with the beach you were just at down below. Once you see the other tourists running of the launching pad you'll feel more at ease and say to yourself if that person can do it so can I. Or then again, maybe you'll change your mind completely about jumping. Just kidding!