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Published: February 28th 2006
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Ipanema
The famous Ipanema area of Rio, looking down from Corcovodo First point of call today was to Corcovodo, Christ the Redeemer, the magnificent statue and symbol that overlooks Rio. We left the hotel at 9am. To see the sights you negotiate with a taxi driver, who will take you to each main site for a set price, so 100 Reals was agreed.
We drove across the City, and made the ascent up the hill towards the statue. At the top of the hill, the taxi pulled up, and we walked the rest of the way. The sight over the City is now amazing, and its a glorius day, blue skies and sun. You approach the statue from the back, and its an amazing sight. You walk around the bottom of the statue, and you can see all around this magnificent City, Botafogo, Copacabana, Ipanema and the Maracana. Its almost as if you are in a postcard, or some famous picture you have seen, its bewildering. After taking as many pictures as possible, our taxi is waiting to take us to Sugar Loaf Mountain. Sugar Loaf is the other side of town, sort of off Copacabana.
To get to the top you buy cable car tickets, and make the ride
Corcovodo
Me in front of one of the worlds most famous statues up. Again its surreal, like you are super imposed in to a picture. The sights at the top are as spectacular as Corcovodo, and this time you can even see planes fly across the City, to land at Dumont airport. After taking in as much as possible, it was time for me to split from the group, and head back to the hotel.
I was being picked up at 2pm, to hanglide over the City! The company who operated the excursion, picked me up in a roofless truck, so you can be driven though Rio and take in all the sights. We picked up other tourists along the way, who were visiting the largest Favella in Rio. It was an incredible sight, a mass of dangerous shacks, swamped together over a hillside. My journey continued, past Ipanema, and on to where I was picked up by the Pilot of the hanglide I would be flying with. His name was Paula, he had been flying for 18 years, and was a nice bloke who spoke English very well. We drove to the top of the mountain we were flying, where after registering for a Pilots licence ( Im now a
Sugar Loaf Mountain
Just going up by cable car to reach the top of Suagr Loaf registered Pilot in Rio!! ), we ran through what I needed to know to successfully fly! He re-iterated that the most important part was a good take off, and to do this we must run down the wooden take off platform as fast as possible, and dont look down, until I can feel my legs in the air! We had a test run, and he was happy. Then we got in the queue to take off. The take off platform is litterally straight off this high mountain, not for the faint hearted! I was just determined to run as fast as possible with Paula, to ensure we took off well. We were up, and after Paula had counted to three, I ran as fast as I could, without looking down, and all of a sudden there was this incredible sensation as the hanglide shot in to the air, and we were flying! It was the first time I had ever done this, and it was incredible, the view over the City was mind boggling, and the feeling of just floating in the air like a bird, and at speed. We flew around 5pm too, the sun was just going down,
Launchpad for Hangliding
The person before me just about to take off over the mountain. That wooden board is the runway, you just have to sprint until you feel no ground! which made the sky and the air to fly perfect. As we were flying we chatted, and Paula took photographs of us( a camera is attached to the hanglide ). He also briefly let me fly the hanglide which they don't usually allow, and took a picture! We flew over the area where the wealthiest people live in Rio, the rich and famous, and their houses and Villas with swimming pools looked amazing. But right next to the rich part, is the biggest Favella in Rio, unreal! After 20 minutes flying, we made our descent. We were to land on the beach. The descent is really fast, and you think you'll hit the ground at great speed, but the landing was easy. This was an exhillerating thing to do, it was incredible, and the highlight of my tour so far. It was very expensive, but in my opinion well worth it.
The excursion group dropped me off in Ipanema, so I had a quick look around. I noticed that Ipanema beach was much busier than Copacabana, and Ipanema generally seemed a really cool, high fashion place. I had the Frank Sinatra song in my head! Then got taxi back
Free as a Bird
Hangliding over Rio de Janeiro, the ultimate! to our hotel, which is the other side of town, and arrived at 7pm.
That night we were all to go to the Red and Black ball, a big event to mark the start of Carnaval, and organised by the Flamengo football club. You are supposed to wear red and black as a theme, which everyone in our group did. I did not have time however after hangliding all afternoon, to organise something to wear, so I just wore my white shirt and jeans, and said I was going as Christ The Redeemer! We went for a lovely meal near our hotel which was quoted in the Lonely Planet guide, and made our way to the ball, which started at 11pm, and was an all night event. The ball was a good night, and was packed out. There was a live band playing Samba music all night, and we all stayed and partyed the whole night.
Today was an incredible day, one of the best ever!
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stewart
non-member comment
fantastic
cant stop laughing and smiling mate when reading these diary entrys, sounds brilliant!!!!