Fun and Games – the inside track on Rio de Janeiro

If the Olympic movement is having a hard time of it, consider the year the host city is having. In the build-up to the 2016 Games, Brazil is sinking under a tickertape parade of bad news. Given stories of polluted water, gang and police violence, an economy in free fall, the Zika virus, fear of terror attacks and a president impeached, worries over unfinished infrastructure for the Games almost pale into insignificance.

ovely Rio, it’s easy to imagine, might just think twice given the chance to bid for the Olympics again. And yet, despite everything, the metropolis remains arguably the most beautiful city in the Americas, if not the world: whatever might happen in the sporting arenas, the Olympics has never had a backdrop as stunning as this.

nd despite all their worries, most cariocas, as Rio’s residents are known, are proud of their amazing city. As they prepare to welcome half a million visitors to the Games, we asked five insiders to talk us through the best of their tropical seaside home.