Bitter, Sweet Sugar Loaf.
Rio has come up with an ingenious way of maintaining its rain forest. It rains. We should have spotted the clue in the name. It is raining right now. Which is a shame as we're up Sugar Loaf mountain with a cloudy panoramic view of Rio. The rain started just as we got to the very top of the mountain. Now Sarah is not one for heights at the best of times. It's why she's so short. Sarah didn't like being up the mountain anyway and when the rain started she politely suggested the we get off the top level of the mountain right now. We spent a record 4 minutes at the peak!
The cable car is in two stages so we decamped to the lower level where Sarah felt safe from electrical storms and tornado force winds. The rain got more persistent but we were doggedly British about it all and found a couple of chairs under some shelter, got refreshments and whilst the band played on we watched other tourist leave, but we stayed, waiting for Rio to sparkle at night.
It is not clear to me why Sugar Loaf is famous. There are plenty of other hills and mountains around Rio to get a good view from. At 396m (1,300ft) Sugar Loaf is not the tallest. It's only historical story (i.e. European recorded events) is that it was first mounted by a British nanny called Henrietta Carstairs in 1817. I think it could be that Sugar Loaf mountain is famous because it is the only mountain in Rio with a cable car up it.
To get to Sugar Loaf, we got the free bus from our hotel to a nearby shopping centre. The bus route took us along Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. Rio has 86km of beach in all, but the famous Ipanema and Copacabana are a total 6km long. The beaches are the heart of the lives of Cariocans, as residents of Rio are known. On the beaches you can play beach volleyball, beach football, surf, swim, sunbathe, rollerblade, sculpt sand, walk your dog, get a massage and take yoga lessons. You can buy almost anything you want, towels, necklaces, thongs, coconuts, t-shirts, maps, sweetcorn and car number plates, though I didn't see a single stall selling life assured, index linked tracker endowment policies.
The cable car is in two stages so we decamped to the lower level where Sarah felt safe from electrical storms and tornado force winds. The rain got more persistent but we were doggedly British about it all and found a couple of chairs under some shelter, got refreshments and whilst the band played on we watched other tourist leave, but we stayed, waiting for Rio to sparkle at night.
It is not clear to me why Sugar Loaf is famous. There are plenty of other hills and mountains around Rio to get a good view from. At 396m (1,300ft) Sugar Loaf is not the tallest. It's only historical story (i.e. European recorded events) is that it was first mounted by a British nanny called Henrietta Carstairs in 1817. I think it could be that Sugar Loaf mountain is famous because it is the only mountain in Rio with a cable car up it.
To get to Sugar Loaf, we got the free bus from our hotel to a nearby shopping centre. The bus route took us along Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. Rio has 86km of beach in all, but the famous Ipanema and Copacabana are a total 6km long. The beaches are the heart of the lives of Cariocans, as residents of Rio are known. On the beaches you can play beach volleyball, beach football, surf, swim, sunbathe, rollerblade, sculpt sand, walk your dog, get a massage and take yoga lessons. You can buy almost anything you want, towels, necklaces, thongs, coconuts, t-shirts, maps, sweetcorn and car number plates, though I didn't see a single stall selling life assured, index linked tracker endowment policies.
posted by Ian @ 7:40 pm
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