Happy Monday! It’s 1AM Eastern, the Asian market is up, and all I see is rosy news about the strengthening euro, receding Chinese inflation and the bond market rallying, so I’ll stick with Pollyanna mode and take you on a mental vacation to Rio. The name is probably merely synonymous with beaches and Carnival for most people, but after landing the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, running the drug dealers out of most of its favelas and draining 80 gallons of stagnant water out of Christ the Redeemer, it’s becoming a well-oiled engine of growth and a hedge fund magnet:

A half a century after losing its status as Brazil’s capital, Rio is becoming an engine of Latin America’s largest economy. The city lured at least two dozen hedge funds in the past decade as well as the nation’s leading oil producers, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics.

Governor Sergio Cabral forecasts the state of Rio will need as much as $90 billion in investment through 2013 for the expansion of the shipbuilding, iron, steel and nuclear power industries, led by projects from billionaire Eike Batista. Oil producers and mining companies helped double state exports in the first five months of the year, a growth rate three times faster than the nation as a whole. “It’s in the midst of a major transformation,” said Palmer, Gartmore’s head of global developing markets overseeing about $5 billion in London. “Rio has come back into the fold because of the Olympics and the development of the oil and gas industry.”

Ipanema, whose beach was named the “world’s sexiest” by the Travel Channel in 2008, and Leblon have lured more than a dozen hedge funds. Of the more than 70 independent asset management firms in Brazil, about 60 percent are based in Rio, half of which are less than 10 years old, according to Economatica data compiled by Rio-based hedge fund Leblon Equities Gestao de Recursos Ltda.

Don’t let my Bandit image above fool you – I doubt you’re ever going to see him taking the shiny new elevator from the favelas to the subway, because the bankers still like Sao Paulo. But if you’re looking for a sunny place to run money, I guess Rio’s got a rapidly-appreciating lozenge of sand with your name on it. My only question is, can they ban the vuvuzuela before 2014?