Sugar Loaf Mountain and beyond

Wow what a day we have had! Some people might say we peaked too soon yesterday (Amanda) but boy oh boy , today was incredible!

After a night in, eating pizza in the hotel lobby bar, we managed to get a good nights sleep. That is until Jane woke at about 3-30 am mithering about the day ahead. She had a list of mithers ….a) could we put all the phones and cameras on charge, b) what shoes should we wear to go on our Sugar Loaf trip and c) exactly what did our trip entail. Anyway, these matters were sorted and back to sleep we went.

We were picked up by Rachel and Raphael at about 9am and off we headed through the rush hour traffic to the base of the Sugar Loaf cable car ride. This takes place in two parts. First stop is the top of Urca, after a look round here you then get another cable car upto the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain itself. Both are these huge outlier rocks made of granite and there are loads more all around.

We loved the views from Urca as you can see all around the magnificent city of Rio de Janeiro. This includes the whole of Guanabara Bay, Niteroi- the city on the other side , Downtown Rio, the vast mountain ridges in the distance and the domestic airport right in the middle of the bay. we watched several planes come into land here.

But once you get to the top of Sugar Loaf you can then see the entire stretch of Copacabana Beach as well as loads of other amazing looking beaches and now even clearer views of Christ the Redeemer in the distance. We absolutely loved it and enjoyed a bit of wildlife too seeing Black Vultures and even a tiny Marmoset in the park at the very top!

But this wasn’t the end of our trip…next up we caught our Helicopter flight and after a bit of sorting we got to fly with three other people right from Urca Helipad over the beaches and round Christ the Redeemer twice before heading back over the length of the beaches. Thanks to some brilliant persuading by our fantastic guide, Rachel, Jane got the prime seat next to the lady pilot and I was in the back with our fellow passengers. It was huge fun….we were also so excited to be doing this and we screamed with laughter every time the pilot did a slightly tight turn. Incredible! It only lasted a total of 10 minutes but has to rank as one of the best things I’ve ever experienced. My mouth was open in awe practically the whole way!!!

When we landed Jane was in tears so I guessed that she’d enjoyed it too although I was just laughing my head off!

Back on ground Jane and I really just wanted to celebrate with a cold one but Rachel wanted to take us to a bohemian area called Santa Teresa. It’s up very windy cobble streets where an old yellow tram still runs. We stopped in the grounds of a beautiful art museum (closed) to admire the views but really they weren’t a patch on what we’d just experienced. However, the drive through the park and lush vegetation was interesting as such a contrast to everywhere we’d been yesterday.

After this we came back to the hotel and got ready to go to the beach. We had a couple of celebratory beers at the cafe on the front before getting our hotel seats down on the sand. The beach seemed really busy today and very distracting. I went in the water but the waves are huge and crashy and there’s a red flag so I didn’t swim. The crashing water felt lovely though. Meanwhile we got chatted up by some Argentinian fellows playing football with local kids in front of us. They seemed to like our blue eyes and the fact that we come from where Peaky Blinders is based!

To end the day, and after a breather in our room, we went for dinner at the Marina Restaurant in the Fairmont Hotel. We were able to safely walk there and back and the meal and Caipirinha were fabulous. The things they can do with a coconut.

So all in all a pretty good day and Amanda you’re right….we may well now have peaked too soon!!