Hang Gliding

Day 46 - Hang Gliding

Our plan for our last full day was to go hang gliding off one of the near by peaks (the one in the centre of this picture.

Good idea in theory. Unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan. We were dropped off by taxi to the beach below the peak. We were told to wait for our pilot there. We were left without any idea of who to talk to for over an hour. There must have been at least 10 companies doing the same thing. I asked enough of the other pilots the right questions to find the right guy.

Finally we were on our way to the top of the peak. When we arrived, we saw a line up of 20 gliders lined up waiting & about the same rolled up waiting. They weren't going anywhere because the peak was totally shrouded in cloud. They aren't allowed to launch unless they can see the landing point. I would think it would be quite dangerous in the air as well.

Around 2.10pm it was called off & we reluctantly headed back to the beach & the hotel.

It was very disappointing but we didn't loose any money on it (and it was about $270 AUD!). We just lost the best part of a day.

Late in the afternoon we went to Rio de Sol which is a big shopping centre. Kerri wanted to see it. No big deal. Could have been a shopping centre anywhere. That's about as interesting as the day got unfortunately.

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.