Some of the very best pictures since I started travelling in this article.: bays, beaches, cliffs, mountains, lakes: Rio isn’t a boring flat city with a river crossing it like many others. I went hiking a bit: Christ the Redeemer, 2 Brothers, Sugarloaf and Pedra da Gavea.
The World famous Christ the Redeemer, Cristo Redentor in Portuguese, is an icon of Rio and Brasil. Built in 1931, it is listed as one of the 7 new Wonders of the World. To get to the top of the 700m high mountain Corcovado, you can either take a bus or a train, or hike through the forest. I opted for the 3rd option, it takes between 1 and 2 hours.
The hike is easy, but steep. In the jungle, it stays relatively cool. This is the only part a bit technical:
The railway:
And here we are! 30m high + 8m pedestal, 625 tons of concrete, designed by a French artist, it is a symbol of Christianity across the World.
Lucky I went there before the Olympics. During the Olympics, there were a minimum of 3 hours wait to get to the platform.
This view is on the right hand side of the Christ, with the lake Lagoa and Ipanema beach.
And this is on the left: (from left to right) Flamengo beach, Botafogo beach and suburb, and Copacabana beach. The sharp mountain (kind of peninsula) between Botafogo and Copacabana, is Sugarloaf mountain, a bit later in the article.
With a few friends met at the hostel (Colombian and Australian), we went to the 2 Brothers, Dos Irmaos in Portuguese. We climbed the highest of the 2 peaks that we can see from Ipanema beach:
The mountain overhangs the largest favela of Rio: Rocinha. 250,000 people live there. I visited this favela, pictures in another article.
It is an easy (30 minutes, 530m high) and not technical climb, and the view is just splendid! Ipanema beach on the left, Lagoa Lake…
The same day, we went to Sugarloaf mountain. This hike isn’t free. You have got to spend about 30 dollars to use the cable cars and reach the top, 400m above the sea level. The pictures do not require comments.
And the last one, Pedra da Gavea. I was alone for that one, no one wanted to follow me. It was by far the hardest and the most dangerous. At 850m, it is the highest mountain in Rio. The first part in the forest is fun…
But then, you get to this wall, and if you don’t have ropes, good luck!
At some points, I had 50m of nothing under my feet. I wouldn’t do it again.
The 2 Brothers and Rio on one side:
And Barra de Tijuca on the other, where most of the Olympics events happened:
The next article will be about beaches 😉
takemethere 