Busy Day 2

We woke up at 7:30 July 14, 2019, had breakfast at our wonderful hotel buffet, and then headed out for the day. Our first stop: Christo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer. It's the massive statue overlooking Brazil on the top of a mountain. 

We decided to take the train to the top as it provides a scenic route. We took an Uber to the station, passing through an extremely long tunnel on the way. They seem to have quite a few tunnels here because of the terrain. Once we arrived, we went to buy tickets and were informed that all elevators and escalators were not in service. We were not entirely sure what that meant, but we were up to an adventure! We bought our tickets easily and quickly at kiosks for R$158 or about 42 USD. I imagine during peak season not buying your tickets online results in an extremely long wait, but for us it was fine. It's funny to think with the lovely weather we have had that this is considered offseason. Once we bought tickets, we went and queued to board the train. Reviews online recommend you queue immediately after getting your tickets and not to wait, which is just what we did. When we passed through the ticket check, we got a picture taken and then waited for the train. When it arrived, everyone was quite pushy for seats. Everyone was hostility for the best views and we had a lovely one facing backwards on the right side of the train. Where we sat, we managed to be near an English tour guide who provide nice information. It takes about 25 minutes to climb the steep 5 kilometer route. She also pointed out a mango tree with orchids hanging off. They don't harm the tree, just live there peacefully. Some other facts I learned while she was talking included that Rio has over 1200 favelas, there is a jackfruit tree epidemic from the monkeys eating them and dispersing the hundreds of seeds each fruit contains, there are Capuchin monkeys here, there are some coffee bushes but you don't see very many, cars cannot reach the top (pointed out last parking lot), the large building along the route used to be a hotel but was transformed into a visitors center for the Olympics. We stopped a couple times on our way up to pass the train that was on its way down. At one stop, there was a guy selling water to passengers on the train. We climbed through the extremely steep and beautiful rainforest, enjoying the sights and trying not to fall out of our seats.

Tunnel

Information sign outside of the station

The train station building

Inside the station waiting for our train

Waiting on the platform

Train arriving!

Video!

Sitting backwards. Hunter was glad there was a wall!

Video!

On our way up!

Video!

Part of the favela on our way up 

The station we stopped at on our way up

Hunter trying not to fall as the ride was extremely steep

Getting some awesome views on our way up

Another stop

Passing another train

Starting to get some city views

That's a horse racing track

We finally made it to the top!

When we made it to the top, we got off the train and were greeted by a monkey way up in the trees. We waited a few minutes for the crowd to disperse, then made out way up the stairs. Overall there were not that many stairs, so we were not sad by the elevators and escalators being out of order. As we climbed the first set of steps, we were met with amazing views of the city and ocean. It was so beautiful! I also managed to capture some video of the English tour guide explaining things to her group. After taking many photos, we continued climbing the stairs and reached a restaurant and gift shops. We stopped again to take more photos as the views were just breathtaking. Up more stairs, there was a snack bar, and then a few more stairs and we reached the massive statue of Christ the Redemer. There were many people taking photos, it was pretty crowded, but that didn't stop us.

Monkey!

There is quite a bit of hiking in the area, but they say to not do it as there are many robberies, so many that the trail to the monument is now closed.

Don't feed the monkeys!

Tour guide speaking

Our first glimpse

Climbing the stairs up

Lots of people

As you can see, it was packed with people.

You can sort of see the soccer stadium to the far left

  

  

  

We walked around a bit and took tons of photos of the amazing views on top of the city. We also took a break and got drinks at the snack bar while we waited for some of the fog to burn off. We took a few final pictures and then headed back down the train. This time we sat the other direction and didn't have to worry about falling forward, except there were people whos knees kept crashing into ours. It was a tight fit! We made a few stops again and finally reached the bottom.

One of the vans you can take up the mountain. I am glad we took the train. 

Looking back at Christ the Redemer

Next, we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. It was a short Uber drive away. Entrance to the gardens was R$15 for Hunter and R$7.50 for me because I am a student. Together it was about $7 US. We began walking through the gardens and came across some beautiful waterfalls. We then found a bridge and took some very nice photos. I was really hungry, so while we were trying to find the snackbar on our way found a medicinal plan garden. It was neat, there was Aloe, violet, and cactus. We finally found the snack place and each got salmon and cream cheese sandwiches that were delicious. We also got coke Zero, and then a bug managed to get into my almost full can which was extremely disappointing. After eating we continued walking around and came to some cool walkways lined with trees. It made for some awesome pictures! Some more walking resulted in us finding monkeys! They were so cute, until one got mean and chased me. A little further there was a bunch of them jumping in the trees with a crowd of people watching. They were so adorable. We took some videos of them. Walking more, we came across the jackfruit, which kind of look like durian, but supposedly are much better. We found more lanes of trees and took many more photos. Eventually, it was nearing time for us to leave to the next activity, so we returned to the entrance and booked an Uber. 

Turtles in front of the gardens by the ticket office

The tiniest monkey ever!

A giant spider. Do you see it?

This is Aloe in the medicinal garden

  

Our salmon sandwich

I was very hungry

  

Jackfruit growing on the tree

cool roots

  

Monkeys!

  

The angry monkey

Monkeys in the trees!

Video!

Just monkeying around

Giant fish

Video!

   

After visiting the botanical gardens, our plan was to head to Sugarloaf Mountain for sunset, however, it seemed our Uber driver had other plans. We left at 3pm from the gardens and our 20-minute ride turned into over 60 minutes. He was a terrible driver who got stuck in standstill traffic and then missed the turn needed so he had to turn around right back into the bad traffic. It was pretty awful. When we finally got to our destination, he drove right past it. Eventually, we got out and walked back to the entrance of the cable cars. We waited in line to book tickets because I was able to get 50% off if we bought them there. Hunter's ticket was R$99 and mine was R$49. Together it was about $40 US which is pretty good for attractions. We have definitely paid more for activities in other countries. When we got the tickets, we followed signs to embark on the tram. We had to provide proof that I was a student, by giving them my student ID which was easy, and then boarded the first tram. The tram cars hold 65 people at a time and quickly whisk you up to the first mountain. The ride was no more than 2 minutes. 

At the first stop, there were a bunch of food places and tons of great photo opportunities. There were an original cable car and a museum that showed how the gears for the trams work. We also found bathrooms and a water fountain to refill our bottles! After enjoying the sights, we got on the next tram to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. It was again a quick ride. 

Part of the gears in the little museum

On our way up to the very top

Video!

At the very top, we were met with beautiful views looking out on the city. The sun was getting close to setting and many people were staking out spots to take photos. We looked around and got some awesome pictures, then decided to get a snack! They have these awesome cheese bread bites that are delicious. For about $3 US we got 10 cheesy bites (I'm not sure what they are actually called but cheesy bites sounds good to me). We ate our snack and watched the sunset. I also gave my mom a quick video call to show her the sunset because there was free wifi. She loved it! At the top, you could also see the airport, which was really cool. We got to watch planes land and takeoff as the sunset!

A sign of all the food places

Cheesy bites snack

As soon as the sun set, there was a rush for the trams back down the two mountains. We decided to wait a bit and explore a little more. We found a path and saw a weird fruit tree. After walking some more we decided to go wait in line for the tram. It didn't take too long before we were loaded on and headed down. It was dark out now and the lights were shining bright which made for some nice photos.

Video of us returning down the mountain

Once we were back on the ground, we ordered an Uber to dinner. The first few drivers canceled on us, but finally, we got one. For dinner, we went to a true Brazilian steakhouse. I had never been to one and boy was it delicious. For a fixed price we had an all you can eat buffet and then waiters came around with different meats on sticks and cut off pieces for us. It was $89reals a person, which was by far our most expensive meal here but boy was it worth it. We both got salad bars to start with buffalo mozzarella and clams filled with baked crab as highlights then it was on to the main attraction the delicious hand-carved meat. We were given a small card to indicate whether or not we were full. When it was flipped to the green side, it meant we were ready for more. Waiters would continually stop by our table as long as it was up, offering us all types of delicious cuts and varieties of meat. We had filet minion, beef tenderloin, sirloin steak, lambs leg and lots of others. We both developed favorites but the options just kept on coming. This was a great way to get familiar with a lot of Brazilian food as it allowed us to try a little bit of tons of different yummy things we might not regularly try otherwise. We tried Picanha and several other cuts of meat that’s preparation is unique to Brazil. We kept going exploring more new foods until we were stuffed. The waiters spoke very little English, and we certainly don’t know Portuguese, but we still managed to have a great experience. Our dinner bill came out to over R$200, an expensive meal here but only around $50 US. There had been a lot of police sirens outside, but everything seemed to be fine so we weren’t worried. We were both very impressed with the meal and full so we quickly ordered an Uber to our hotel for the night.

  

Date: July 14, 2019