On Saturday I awoke to partly cloudy skies and despite technically being mid-winter, it was actually quite warm and humid. My room didn’t face the beach, but if I opened the window and leaned out, this is the view that I had.
I decided to book a day tour that visited the city’s main sights. It was led by a charismatic local who either truly loved his job as a guide or was simply a seasoned actor that put on a very believable show. Either way, he did a good job leading the 20 or so tourists who were accompanying him for the day. All while switching between three languages – Portuguese, Spanish and English.
The tour began with a drive along three popular beaches in Rio – Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. All three were relatively calm given the early hour, though there were some ambitious souls starting the day with a jog.
As we passed Ipanema, the guide provided some background on the famous song (it turns out the song is about a real person), and even did a personal rendition that wasn’t half bad. Here's the Astrud Gilberto / Stan Getz version, which is the one that I'm more familiar with.
Our first true stop of the day was Corcovado (“hunchback”) Mountain, whose peak rises 2,300 feet above the sea. At the top is perhaps the most recognizable sight in Rio – Cristo Redentor (“Christ the Redeemer”), a 130 foot statue that was constructed in the 1920s.
As we reached the peak, it was engulfed by a dense fog that effectively obscured the panoramic views of the city. Thus I was a bit concerned that this would be a repeat of Emilie and my “Fog of Moher” experience on the Western coast of Ireland. Fortunately, however, over the course of the 30-minute visit the fog ultimately broke a bit to reveal one of the most beautiful landscapes that I’ve ever seen. Between the irregular topography and the lingering clouds / fog, it was very picturesque.
The guide offered to take a photo of me with the statue in the background. Little did I know, however, that some random dude decided to grace the photo with his presence as well. Who does that? I go out of my way to avoid ruining people’s pictures (to the extent of even awkwardly ducking if necessary). Meanwhile, this guy stands proudly as if he’s my friend. Not to mention his sleeveless shirt with a stain on it…
After
Next we visited the Sambódromo, the site of the annual samba competition during Carnival. It’s effectively a converted street with a permanent parade ground including bleachers that stretches over 2,000 feet. It’s definitely not the same without the actual Carnival atmosphere, but it was still nice to see the venue.
We also visited the Estádio do Maracanã, which is the famous “football” stadium in Rio . It’s under construction in preparation for the 2014 World Cup, so we weren’t able to the inside. Similar to the Sambódromo, though, I doubt you get the real experience unless you’re there for an actual match.
After a brief stop at a(nother) coma-inducing churrascaria, we headed to Pão de Açúcar (“Sugar Loaf Mountain”). It rises 1,300 feet above the entrance to Rio’s
The journey to the top requires two cable car rides, the first of which takes you to the top of the adjacent Morro de Açúcar.
And while not as high as its neighbor, Morro de Açúcar still offers very nice views of
Here’s one of the original cable cars from the 1910s. It would have taken a braver man than me to ride that thing up roughly a century ago.
The panoramic view from Pão de Açúcar is beautiful, with Copacabana beach to the left, Cristo Redemptor in the distance and Guanabara Bay to the right.
By the time the tour finished it was almost sunset, so I headed up to the hotel’s roof deck to take some pictures. It was still very warm and there were a lot of people still out, but the sun had long been obscured by the mountains.
After growing up in
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