Pat and Jas World Tour: JC and the Sugar Loaf

Sorry its been awhile but we've been spending a bit of time swatting mozzies from hell and riding on the back of trucks. So i'll try and make a start on the backlog of posts by telling you about our tourist thing in Rio.

As we said in one the earlier posts we had decided to spend most of the time in Rio just lounging around on the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, setting aside one whole day to do a Complete Rio tour (which we found out about in a nice little english pub for expats in Ipanema called Lord Jim's). Lord Jim's wasn't too bad (just don't order guiness as its very pricey...which we found out all too late)...a typical dark and seedy pub but with large flat screen tvs for football...we got speaking to the owner who was a local of polish descent and he put us onto this tour company run by one of his mates. The Complete Rio tour highlights were Christ the Redeemer ( or for the ignorant people like myself...the "big jesus statue") and the Sugar Loaf ( a big hill which you take two shakey cable cars to get to). Both are must sees when visiting Rio.

The Christ the Redeemer statue was pretty 'coolo' though its important to go on a reasonably clear day as when you get there you find that the panoramic view of Rio can be blocked by a thick layer of cloud. Similarly the cloud cover can be so thick that even the statue can be blocked from view (so we have quite a few pics with us standing in front of just the statue's legs). It was interesting to hear that the Church owns the Statue itself and receives most of the proceeds from the entry fee (which was quite steep...around 35 reals).

The Sugar Loaf was also quite 'coolo' and you had to take two cable cars to get to the top. The first one took you to a baby sugar loaf and then you took another one to the actual Sugar Loaf. The views of Rio from top of both hills were quite amazing and the Sugar Loaf itself has a nice little garden down the far side which you can walk through. The garden was heavily populated with little monkeys. EVIL little monkeys who attack unsuspecting amateur cameramen when they get too close for the close-up. Luckily the monkey knew what was good for him and backed off...i think the little girlie scream scared him off! Entry fee for the Sugar Loaf was also kinda steep but i guess it is one of there main tourist spots (also around 35 reals) and you do get to ride the cable cars.

All in all the Tour was extremely good value at 100 reals. We received entry into both Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf (70 reals combined), buffet lunch (around 20 reals), visited the Cathedral and driven around all day in a minibus.

Other highlights of the Rio leg would be getting badly sun burnt on the second last day. The sun is strong in Rio...no mistakes about it...we stupidly spent an hour in the late morning in the surf without sunscreen and paid the price. We also found out something which we probably should have realised a lot sooner and that was why the locals never seemed to go into the water around the middle of the beach. Extremely strong undertow there!! I guess when we were being sucked backwards in ankle deep water we probably should have clicked....hehe...yep...that and the big red signs! =P