Sugar Loaf

The final stop on the city tour was Sugar Loaf. We had looked down on it from the foot of JC earlier in the afternoon, but when we arrived we were looking up at this towering rock.



The easiest way to reach the top is by taking two cable cars. The first one takes you to the first hump. The the second one takes you up to the peak of its bare volcanic plug.

There are some nice views from the first hump but the weather wasn't being even a bit co-operative. We did take the second cable car to the top, but were shrouded in cloud and saw nothing except what was 3 ft in front of us.

We were returned to our hotel after Sugar Loaf. We had enough time to get organised & re-join the rest of the crew for our final dinner together. It was a smorgasbord meat fest similar to a couple of similar ones we'd been to throughout Brazil, but was a clear winner in the classy stakes. The next day everyone would go their separate ways (and I mean separate!)

Mike was staying on in South America for another 3 months; Nic was heading to New Zealand & Australia for work, Nora & Vincent were headed home to the Emerald Isle; Corina & Sandra, back to Switzerland; Vixy was staying in Rio for a few days then back to the UK; Special K was heading to the UK via New Zealand; and lastly, Hina & Smita were going home to the UK before a trip to India.

It was sad, but I think most of us were ready for a change after spending the last 6 weeks together. Fortunately the Internet makes the world a small place these days. I expect to see at least half of them again at some point.

As for myself, I was done with the trip. I could have hopped a plane back to Calgary that night. After the city tour, Rio didn't hold much interest for me. I'm more a wilderness kinda guy. I was already stressing about trying to get work back in Australia after the news of the economy crashing had filtered to me during the last 2 weeks of the trip. We still had nearly 2 full days to fill in.

Cathedral of St Sebastian

Shortly after the stop at carnival we visited the Cathedral of St Sebastian. It looked more like a cooling tower to me & once we were inside, it became apparent that the structure behaves a lot like a cooling tower. There was no air conditioning in the building but it was nice & cool.The interier of the Cathedral were a quite interesting with huge panels of stained glass & the strange louvers that cool it.

As we left the Cathedral the weather started to come in & the great statue we had been standing at the foot of was shrouded in cloud all of a sudden. I took the photo below from the cathedral.

Carnival

Not far from the football stadium is the site for the world famous Carnival. It doesn't look too exciting but I'm sure you've seen footage from the festival.

There is a small shop near by that has many costumes from years gone by to have a look at and even try on. Corina, Kerri, Nic & Sandra took the try on option for a small fee.

Soccer Stadium

We jumped back in the car and continued the tour. The route back to the city took us down through the Favela area. It's a suburb that's notorious for gangs. It didn't look that interesting to me.
Next stop was Maracana stadium. It's the largest football stadium in the world. Again, not that interesting to a rugby union boy. The stadium does have these weird foot prints set in concrete similar to the hand prints on Hollywood boulevard.

Tufted Capuchin Monkeys

These opportunists have no issues with using people to make their search for food easy.

Sloth

It wasn't just coatis that were at home amongst the throngs of tourists. This sloth was in one of the busiest areas.

Coatis

After travelling across brazil & only seeing 3 coatis, we couldn't believe that at a busy tourist spot like JC on the hill, would be home to a huge family of the busy little critters. They were so brazen! I made sure I kept my distance.

Three of the youngsters even decided to have a play fight right in fronts of us.

The View From Above

Far more interesting than the huge statue was the view from its feet. We could see across the entire city, the bay it surrounds, the Atlantic Ocean, and Sugar Loaf rock amongst other sights.

Christ the Redeemer

If you haven't seen footage of this huge statue, you've been living under a serious rock. It's very popular with the tourist set & we were far from alone. The statue can bee seen from almost anywhere in the city & with good reason. It's on about the highest point in the area.

Off to Rio

We left the boat at Mangro and waited for a little while for our van. It turns out that the van wasn't big enough for the whole lot of us so an extra taxi (of sorts) showed up as well. Most of the group rushed to get in the van which was a bit cramped by the time they all pile in. Kerri, Nic & myself took the car option & it was a good one. Plenty of space & comfy seats.

The trip wasn't especially interesting & about the only thing of interest (and I use the term loosely) was this train. As you can expect, not much to say. It's a train.

I guess it took a couple of hours to get to the hotel in Rio de Janeiro. The hotel situation was a disaster! Most of the rooms weren't ready even though it was well past check in time. Our room was ready but one of the two single beds had the hardest mattress I've ever sat on! No jokes, it was more like a table! We complained because we weren't about to put up with it for the last 3 nights of out holiday (and it would have been me sleeping on it). They found us a different room but they made it difficult for us.

We signed ourselves up for a city tour that afternoon because it looked like it would be the best weather for the next few days. It would take us to most of the big tourist spots/traps around Rio.

Out of place

I spotted this otter close to the mainland. I don't know which species it is because the research I've done tells me there shouldn't be otters in the ocean in that area. I think it could be one of the endangered sea going otters that are normally off the Argentina coast.

Time To Leave

Day 45 - Travel to Rio de Janeiro

Unfortunately we had to leave Ilha Grande some time. The younger members of the group had gone on a booze cruise to one of the small islands the night beofre & weren't too interested in anything except sleeping. Guess which ones they were.... We all piled onto a small boat for the trip back to the mainland. We wouldn't go back to Angra this time but would instead head slightly north east to Mangro.