Rio part 2 - The Touristy Thing

It was Monday morning and we woke fresh after a lot of sleep and decided to make the most of the day and see how many of the sights we could take in. The botanical gardens were appealing with over 2000 different plant species. We took in the sights of the enormous bamboo. Some canes were so big that people had carved their names into it. Unfortunately having forgotten the penknife, I found a cane that said something close to ‘Cammie’ to photograph. There were some crazy plants and we managed to also find a number of little lizards around the place to run after and try to photograph.

Gigantic bamboo at the Botanic Gardens

Then there was the Statue of Christ (Christo Redentor). We had seen him the previous day looking quite disappointingly small in the distance amongst the clouds. But up close it was a different story. Sure, it was a massively touristy thing to do, but it had to be done and he was just as scary as I had thought he’d be up close. Quite awesome in a Jesusy kind of way.

Cristo Redentor

The view from Christ

Then there was a cable car up Sugar Loaf mountain on offer. To keep the budget under control however, we opted to climb on foot the slightly smaller mountain, Morro da Urca, just below Sugar Loaf. Apparently the view was just as good, just a little lower and it meant we needn’t fork out for a cable car, plus it was good exercise and I could trial out the new boots. All in all a no brainer! It was tight in regards to time. We wanted to make it for sunset. The rush hour traffic through Rio from Christ on one side to Sugar Loaf on the other hindered things a little but we paced it to the foot of the mountain and made it to the top just in time, whilst making a few little monkey friends along the way. I was able to take a photo of this one, who sat in a tree by the path looking hectically from side to side in a slightly paranoid way, whilst 3 smaller ones on the opposite side of the path repeatedly climbed and then hurled themselves out of the trees in an attempt to catch each other, totally unaware of the small crowd who had gathered to watch them.

Little monkeys that live around Sugar Loaf

View from Sugar Loaf

On Tuesday we had pre-arranged with Andy and Mariana to meet up and attempt to climb the highest of the two peaks of Dois Irmãos, a beautiful massif which sits at the western edge of Ipanema beach and is 533m above sea level. However, the climb was to start with a ride on the back of a motor bike with a local from the Favela Vidigal which sits at the foot of the mountain. There are over 60 favelas in Rio and many have now been pacified which means their guns have been seized, but they are still not the friendliest of places, especially for ‘gringos’. You can pay for guided tours through some, but we were lucky enough to have Andy and Mariana as guides. With Mariana being a native Brazilian we were probably a bit safer than most tourists but we still didn’t take any chances and took the bare minimum of possessions and cash. On entering the Favela we were swamped by local kids on bikes offering to take us up through the favela for a bit of cash and after a few seconds of hectic haggling, all 4 of us were on the back of different motorbikes sweeping up through Vidigal, twisting and turning, slowing for the odd speed bump or chicken, racing each other in between. Different music was playing at every turn and during some of the slower points some kids would shout ‘hey, gringos’ and people stopped and starred, but we got to the top unscathed and the kids retreated shouting ‘goodbye’ and ‘thank you’. They seemed a good bunch of kids, just out to have a laugh and make a bit of cash on their bikes as and when they could. At the top of the Favela, the hard work started and we had to climb the rest of the mountain by foot. A midway point allowed a view of Rocinha, the biggest favela in South America and in places was still to be pacified. Only last week a cop had been killed and there are still many gangs in place within the confines of the favela itself. I had never seen anything like it.

A view of the Rochina Favela

We continued the climb to the top and the view was amazing. Well worth the 2 hour climb. We were so high even the birds were circling below us. We sat there for a while, taking in the view and chatting and getting some photos, before heading back down. We opted to walk back down through the favela where I was able to take a few discreet photos. We rewarded ourselves with an Acai – a refreshing local treat made from the acai grape like berries harvested from palm trees native to the South American rainforests. It’s dark red and kind of like a slush puppy and you can cover it in granola. We are hugely grateful to Andy and Mariana for guiding us around and allowing us to experience all parts of Rio that would have otherwise been with unknown or potentially out of bounds for us alone. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future.

Us guys with Andy and Mariana

A few shots of Vidigal

We then retired back to the hostel to plan the next part of our journey, hopefully involving lots of sunshine, tropical islands and waterfalls that are so spectacular they apparently make grown men weep!