Tourists in Rio

We decided to be tourists in the city of Rio, so we booked ourselves some tours. Our first days tour was to Sugarloaf mountain and the Statue of Christ (Corcovado). We decided to pay a little extra and go in a small group rather than a bus. As it turned out, we had a private tour in an old American Jeep. It was cool.

Driving through the tunnels in the back of an open top Jeep with the traffic weaving in and around us was quite an experience.

First stop was Sugar Loaf mountain. Two cable cars to get to the top and some pretty astounding views when you get there.

View of a part of Rio

The thing about Rio that I didn't 'get' until I went there was that Rio is a collection of very distinct areas. These areas are created partially by human geography (like they are in many other cities, but mostly out of the physical geography as the imposing hills get in the way. The hills (of which, many have near vertical cliff-faces) are totally part of the city in the way that the parks are part of London.

Copacabana Beach, from Sugarloaf mountain

Each strip of sand is a beach to itself (or in the case of some, more than one beach) and the city has a goodly number of these beaches on the Atlantic coast in the Southern Area.

The lagoon, Ipanema and Leblon

After Sugar Loaf, we went up to the statue of Christ Redeemer on Corcavado. There is a funicular railway up the mountain which predates the statue (and was partially why the statue was put there in the first place) but we didn't go on it - instead we drove a good deal of the way up, parked and then got a collectivo. There was a reasonable Police presence, as the road up to the Statue seems to be a favourite place to relieve tourists of their belongings.

Can we be any more touristy?

The statue itself is more impressive from a distance, but the views from the hill are amazing. The weather was absolutley perfect - clouds came in just as we sat down for our coffee and pasties after taking our pics.

Back to the hotel for some well earned sleep.