Floresta da Tijuca (Teeshjuka) or Tijuca Forest - Said to be the largest urban forest in the world, we went with Alice and Romulo with their friend in his car. It took us a while to find the place but we managed to get there on time and meet up with the other couchsurfers. From the meeting point in pracinha (little square) do Alto da Boa Vista (good high view) we walked about an hour into the forest, past a big waterfall, up a road then into the forest and on to a smaller waterfall. We could easily have been walking in the bush in NZ. It was a hot sunny day and the waterfall at the end of the walk was a welcome relief. Most people got under it and cooled off, it was falling from quite a height so hit hard but was cool. No pool at the bottom, just rocks and a small stream where you could bath your feet.
On the way back to Alacantara, where we are living, we drove in the car past all the famous beaches of Rio - Copacobana, Ipanema, Flamingo... They are long golden beaches and some fairly wide, we didn't get to stop and go on so I have no idea if they are sand or stone yet. Sadly the see is a poo green colour which would put us off swimming but there were people in there. Copacobana has huge scaffolding up for the speakers and stages ready for the New Year celebrations.
Ilha Paqueta or Paqueta Island (Cost pp: ferries one way Niteroi to Rio 2.80rs, Rio to Paqueta 4.80rs) - A very pretty bucolic island out in the harbour. We caught a ferry across to Rio and from there another out to the island. The ferry was packed, standing room only and took about an hour to make the journey carrying us under the really long Costa Da Silva bridge which links the city of Niteroi with downtown Rio. Rio is like Auckland in that it is made up of lots of cities joined together. The island of Paqueta is small and its industry is tourism. Immediately we got off the ferry there were horse and carts, four seater bicycles, bars, street sellers etc etc etc. We walked down the main street (about 50 metres) and out the other side to a lovely beach where people were sunbathing and swimming in the green sea. Along the road by the beach to a park which had a small hill and some tunnels through it. Here we stopped because the water bottle in Carols new christmas bag leaked majorly all over everything in the bag including the cellphone Alice had lent us. It was on and Kent figured it was fried but he took it apart while we sat in the park and we spread everything out to dry in the hot sun. We sat there until most things were dry then returned to the ferry walking around the island back to the terminal. The ferry back wasn't as packed which was a relief. We were heading back to Rio to go to ..... ----
Morro da Urca e Pao de Acucar or Urca Mountain and Sugarloaf (Cost pp: each cablecar 22rs, can of beer 4rs) - It took us about half an hour to find the bus to Urca, being directed by helpful locals and police, quite possibly our understanding of the Portuguese and hand signals was a bit off. Finally we made it to Urca and found that there are two cablecars, the first takes you to the top of Urca Mountain which is about 200 metres high and the second from there up to Sugarloaf. It is possible to walk up Urca so we headed off to the left of the small beach there and up into the trees on the small mountain, luckily the walk was in the trees the whole way as it was a hot sunny day. The trail is not well maintained and in parts is pretty steep but it is definitely easily doable. On Urca there is a viewing platform and even though you are not very high you get good views out over the city. We had a beer, rested a while, then caught the cablecar up to Sugarloaf. As you will see from the pics it has fairly vertical sides and there were some people climbing both it and Urca with all the proper gear and others repelling down. The vista from Sugarloaf was magnificent (even though we were still not that high up), we could see from Copacobana Beach all the way around to the national airport and beyond to the outer suburbs and the long bridge to Niteroi and Niteroi city itself. We had arrived in time to see the sun set, it is said to be a lovely sight going down behind the famous statue of Christ on the mountains opposite, but the horizon was filled with cloud so the sun just disappeared into these and didn't set properly. Luckily though as a nice bonus for missing the sunset a huge thunderstorm came across the city of Niteroi in the distance and we were treated to some spectacular lightning and thunder and a huge black sky. We sat for ages watching nature perform and took some videos which Kent later broke down into frames so we were able to get a great pic of one huge lightning strike. The storm moved closer and we started to feel the edge of it with wind and a few drops of rain and finally we were ushered into the returning cablecars as the place was closing. We travelled all the way to the bottom using both cablecars, the journey down from Urca was free as you can't walk back down in the dark. Down the bottom we were just in time for a .... ---
Beach Luau - A couchsurfing event was being held on the small beach called Praia Vermelha at the bottom of Sugarloaf. In the parking lot on the way across to it we found a girl selling great 4rs hamburgers out of the back of a small van and right beside a man selling coconuts for 2.50rs, he cut it open and inserted a straw and when we had finished the milk he cut it open for us to eat the flesh. The Luau was space on the beach with a stereo and a hundred or so of the couchsurfing community partying in the sand. The storm edge rolled by treating us to about 10 minutes of rain and nothing more, it continued to be warm. We were lucky enough to find a friend who lives near to Alcantara and got a ride back with her and her mother. She, Maira, was the person who helped us to find a couch at Romulo's house and she and her mother are hosting about 11 couchsurfers and having a great time of it. On the way she drove us through downtown Rio and showed us where all the clubs are etc. There is a huge train viaduct there that runs smack across the club area.
A great day, full on! Exhausted now!
