Barra da Tijuca

he beach of Barra da Tijuca, known to locals simply as Barra and pronounced like "Baja" or "ba-ha"extends for 18km/11mi with almost completely untouched stretches favored by surfers.Barra is a large borough of Rio, its largely residential and you need a car to get almost anywhere. There are very few and small areas to walk around in besides malls. The area is considered very "americanized" and is perhaps more reminiscent of larger North American beach front cities than anything else in Brazil.