Days 28 and 29: Rio - Cristo, Pao do Asucar and Bonde

Rio is quite a city.  In fact, even though there are numerous Internet cafes, we´ve been so busy site seeing that we haven´t sat down to write about our experiences.  But we want to tell everyone what we´re doing.  Plus, we want to write it down so we don´t forget what we´ve done. 

 

Rio is a city with a huge amount of things to do and things to see.  Similar to other great world cities, e.g., New York, London or Paris, you can spend a week here and not see it all.  But, like other great cities, there are a few very touristy, very cool (possibly) things you have to do when you visit.  For Rio, two of these are taking the train up to Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer, huge statue of Jesus with his arms in the shape of a cross) and taking the cable car up Pao do Asucar (a mountain in the middle of the city).  Because there is a certain amount of energy involved in these uber-touristy undertakings, we decided to do both in one day. 

 

In the morning we hopped on a bus that took us to the train that ascended the mountain to the Cristo statue.  We fought off dudes trying to convince us that their taxi service was better than the train (though it was more expensive, and, we came to take the train, why take a cab on curvy roads up a mountain when you can take a train through the rainforest????  These are times when we wish we spoke more Portuguese) and bought our tickets to the train.  We boarded with a bunch of other tourists and took the train to the top of the mountain.  The ride was about 45 minutes, and, even though this mountain is surrounded by Rio and its suburbs, it is also part of a National Park that reaches into Rio like a finger between the inland suburbs and the mountain hugging beach cities.  Thus, we soon were out of the city and deep in the rainforest. In fact, as our train slowly climbed the mountain, Olivia spotted a sloth climbing in a tree.  Unfortunately, it ran off before Chris had a chance to look at it (just kidding!). 

 

The Cristo Rendentor is incredible.  The statue of Jesus is about 30 stories high and is on top of a mountain that rises straight up, several hundred meters above the city.  So once we reached Cristo, we were given grand views of Impanena, Copacabana, Pao do Asucar as well as the rest of Rio and mountains and ocean in all directions.  They view was outstanding.

 

We then hopped two more buses (Rio´s buses are very convenient, though they are loud, uncomfortable, driven by maniacs and, we´re told, slightly dangerous...but we have not seen any sign that we could be robbed on a bus) to get to the neighborhood of Urca.  Urca is about two blocks wide, tucked between Botafogo Bay and the sheer cliffs of Pao do Asucar.  At the very end of the neighborhood is a seafood bar (Urca Bar) where you can sit on the sidewalk or a short wall overlooking the bay and order fish and beer.  This isn´t a sidewalk cafe, we (and many others) were literally sitting on the sidewalk, ordering food from Urca Bar.  We stayed at this charming bar for a few hours, enjoying the view of the bay and the city, great seafood, and the novelty of drinking beer on the street with dozens of other people. We were waiting fo the sunset for our ascent of Pao do Asucar.  We walked from the bar to Pao and were rewarded with magnificent views of Cristo. While we´d been enjoying ourselves at Urca Bar some clouds had moved in so we saw Cristo high on the cliff with while small clouds drifted underneath the statue but far above the city.

 

Pao do Asucar is one of Rio´s oldest tourist attractions.  The first cable cars were put in in around 1913, though they were modernized in the 1970s.  There are two sections on the cable car that bring you to successively higher points above the city.  At the top of Pao we found the view to be even more amazing than up Cristo.  The Pao do Asucar is several hundred meters above the city and sits on a peninsula that allowed us to view all of Rio. To our left we could see the beaches of Copacana and Impanema, in front of us the neighborhoods at the base of Cristo, to our right downtown Rio and the bay that defines Rio.  This city is amazing in that is is built in and around and on top of some of the most beautiful and amazing mountains and beaches anywhere in the world.  And, unlike other cities, whose skylines are defined by their building, Rio´s skyline really is defined by these mountains that rise improbably among apartment highrises and beaches.

 

The weather on the following day was not great (hot and muggy with light, misty rain) so took the Metro to downtown Rio.  Rio is a very bustling city.  Our Lonely Planet walking tour took us through neighborhoods full of old mansions and skyscrapers and crowded markets.  We also took the bonde (street car) up to the neighborhood of Santa Theresa which sits on a hill high above downtown.  The street car was quaint and the streets steep, much like San Francisco, but more run down.  Now we´re walking through the heart of Rio, the non-touristed part and are planning on having the best churrascaria (grilled meat) in Rio for dinner. Mmmmm...meat.