Wednesday February 5th, 2025 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Neil Wylie
- Dec 31
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 13
Well here we are in Rio for the first day of our two day visit. We awoke this morning to slightly overcast skies and a view across a bay to a very long roadway elevated over the water, we are on the starboard side of the ship, and it is docked with the port side facing the city. We have ships tours planned for both days.
Today we are scheduled to visit both Sugarloaf Mountain in the morning and Christ the Redeemer in the afternoon, it’s a nine hour tour.
Our tour bus left the dock at about 8AM and we sped off through the streets of Rio, well we sped for about 2 minutes and then hit some of the famous traffic. First impressions: messy, chaotic, a bit run down but with bits of very modern intermixed. Rio also rivals Athens for being number one on the list of most graffitied – almost every vertical surface has been tagged, admittedly some of the graffiti verges on art. At one point we passed done a wide street with an important government building (it may have been the courthouse) on one side, covered in graffiti – while on the other side was the Rio yacht club with a mile long beautiful white wall and not a spec of graffiti. Perhaps this was an indication of where the power resides in the city?
At about 8:30 AM we passed a beautiful park and arrived at the cable car terminus for the ride up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain which is situated on a peninsula at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Rising 396 m (1,299 ft) above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.
We had been warned to expect long queues and, sure enough, we could already see a long line snaking its way out of the terminus and along the roadside. The place did not open until 9AM. The sun was well up, there was not a cloud in the sky and, although closer into the terminus there as a covered area, we were lined up way outside with no cover at all. Many people, including us, began to melt. I remembered we had brought an umbrella to use as a parasol, it only offered marginal relief – but we were glad for it. Even as the line finally started to move, the angle of the sun was such that we got no shade while in the “covered area”. It took almost two hours to reach the cable car and, packed in like sardines, we began the ascent. We could barely enjoy the view as the heat stroke took hold and about 2 minutes later were disgorged onto the intermediate stop.
It takes two cable car rides to reach the summit of Sugarloaf; on the lower mountain there are various concession stands, some nice gardens and a very small movie facility showing a history of the cable car construction. We had lost touch with our tour group at this point and assumed they had already headed up to the top – so we bypassed everything at this level and took the next cable car up. Thankfully this time there was only a very short queue, and the car was less crowded for the short journey to the top.
On reaching the summit we immediately tried to find some seats in a shaded area, it took a while but eventually a spot opened up and we made a “dash” for it. I was surprised that it was not that busy, maybe because were early arrivals? Our water supplies had not quite run out, but we needed some sugar to get us going – it turned out we had grabbed a seat right beside a kiosk selling amazing, candied nuts. Our energy levels began to pick up just a touch and we walked around the railing on the edge of the summit to take in the views. It was pretty spectacular, with something to see at almost all points of the compass. The statue of Christ the Redeemer could be seen across the bay sitting atop a peak not too dissimilar from Sugarloaf. With his outstretched horizontal arms and standing right on the edge of a very high cliff, it appeared to me that he was like some kind of celestial high diver about to do a triple somersault with a pike and a twist. The many bays of Rio were clear and pristine and from one side we could see right down into Copacabana Beach. Several Favelas could be seen crammed into valleys and extending up the hills; these shanty towns, or slums, from a distance, looked like a scattering of Lego bricks.
Back down at the lower mountain we found our tour guide getting ready to take the group up to the top, we informed her that we’d be heading back to the ship and not continuing on with the tour. We were completely drained of energy and could just not face another 2+ hour wait in the blazing sun to get to the top of Christ the Redeemer. I purchased a couple of popsicles, and we spent some time on the lower mountain, with similarly magnificent views and some shady spots amongst the lush vegetation. As we walked along one of the paths through a forested area I spotted an incredibly tiny monkey, a Common Marmoset, sitting on the handrail and as I looked more closely, I could see it had a baby on its back about the size of a pack of cards. Descending in the cable car back down to ground level we noticed absolutely no one waiting in line to enter the cable car building. If you are going to visit Sugarloaf Mountain my recommendation is not to book in a group as the lines for groups, like ours, were very long compared to those with individual tickets – also arrive in the early afternoon after the crowds have died down.
Our day in Rio was topped off with an amusing Uber ride. We’ve used Uber quite a bit now, but this was the first time outside the US and the UK and on firing up the App it all looked very familiar. I banged in “Cruise Terminal” and the App brought up only one option, duly selected, we waited about 5 minutes for our ride to arrive. One difference with Uber in Brazil is the requirement to show the driver a passcode that was generated when I requested the ride, the codes matched, and we set off. The car was slightly air-conditioned so that was a slight relief, we sat back and relaxed as the uber-man wove his way through the famous Rio traffic with all the skill of a demolition derby driver.
After a while I began to wonder about the direction were we heading; we drove almost the entire length of Copacabana beach, rounded the point and then drove all the way alongside Ipanema beach – I could not remember coming this way on the bus earlier today. Presently we pulled into the Sheraton Hotel and the driver was all smiles, waving his arms and indicated he done a brilliant job to get us to our destination in one piece – he didn’t speak a word of English. Mass confusion… the driver pointing to his phone and me to mine, he spoke in Portuguese to his phone and then it translated into English for us the hear. Eventually after me making my best impression of a cruise ship, the driver final understood where we actually wanted to go. After another nice tour of a different part of Rio we were deposited about quarter of a mile from the cruise terminal. We’d had about an hour and twenty minute grand tour of Rio, and it cost us about 12 USD. As we were getting out of the car the driver leaned back and with gestures and a few words indicated that I had only wanted to take the diversion along the beaches so I could “see the pretty girls”!
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