Travel-Trotter

The next day was supposed to be the last perfectly sunny day in Rio so we took another day off school and headed to Sugarloaf Mountain to take in the views.  We got to the mountain at a reasonable hour and had no lines getting up to the top.  There are actually two telefericos, the first takes you to Morro da Urca where you transfer to a second teleferico up to the top of Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain).  The views were pretty spectacular, you can see all of Rio including Copacabana Beach and the entire Guanabara Bay.  I took a time-lapse of the teleferico ride up to the top and it turned out really well, doesn’t even look real.

We learned that the first wires for the telefericos were attached to the backs of climbers who scaled the mountain.  Then subsequently heavier wires were attached and pulled up until the proper thickness of wire was at the top.  It must have taken a long time with a lot of effort, but the views were worth it.  We had our mid-morning snack to avoid meltdown when we got to the top then wandered around the different terraces at the top taking tons of pictures.

After an hour of wandering around and learning about the history of the place we headed back down the mountain and visited the beach at the bottom of the mountain a secluded beach called Praia Vermelha.

It was a complete disaster, we didn’t have bathing suits so everyone got wet of course even after many warnings not to, and everybody was overly hungry which seems to be our biggest problem despite having food like every hour it seems, our girls must be having a growth spurt.  We grabbed hamburgers at a local food cart and placated everyone for the moment.

After Sugarloaf we headed back to our apartment, grabbed the beach bag and played at Copacabana beach for the rest of the day.  The water on the Atlantic side of the city (not the bay side) was much cleaner and we allowed the girls to play in the surf.  Although not too far as the waves got progressively bigger as the day wore on, at one point a man had to be rescued by the local lifeguards after he was having trouble swimming.  We kept a close eye on the girls, but they never got into trouble.  We snacked on shrimp, caipirinhas and cashews that were sold to us by vendors walking by.  After another great day in Rio we retreated home and got some rest.