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Published: August 17th 2015
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Hi All,
Today we went on a full day tour to Sugar Loaf Mountain, Maracana Stadium, Christ the Redeemer, Sambadrome (Rio Carnival strip), Saô Sebastião Cathedral, beach tour, and a buffet lunch. We booked up through the hostel for approx. £40, we thought it would have come close to this cost if we were to have done each attraction by ourselves, and it was stress free and we had an English tour guide.
Our first stop was Sugar Loaf Mountain, which is a peak that lies at the mouth of Guanabara Bay and rises 396m/1299ft above the harbor. The tour included the two cable cars that took us up for panoramic views of the city. People can opt to just do the first cable car, if you go by your self, but the views are much more impressive from the second peak!
We stopped at the Sambadrome (Rio Carnival strip) which is the purpose built stadium constructed specifically to host the annual Rio Carnival parades. There wasn’t much to see as the festival takes place in February, but we could see the spectator viewing sectors built on both sides of the strip.
Through out the rest of the year this area is used for concerts.
We had a short stop off at Saô Sebastião Cathedral, this is an unusually shaped building, which is not particularly pretty from the outside. On the inside though, it is designed to use only natural light, with long panels of stained glass on the slanting ceilings and creates an enchanting effect. It’s worth a visit and it’s free to pop in.
The all-you-can-eat buffet was included in the trip and was very good! We had everything from BBQ meat, sushi, battered fish, salad, fruit, curry etc. We sat with the Japanese and French guys who were the only others on the trip with us at this stage (more joining after lunch). The French guy couldn’t speak English and our French was a tiny bit better so that’s what we spoke along with Spanish, as we were all equally bad at this language too.
After lunch we spent about an hour driving around picking other people up from their hotels for the next part of the trip: Christ the Redeemer. Considered one of the new wonders apparently, it is
38m/98ft tall statue of Jesus Christ that has been watching over Rio de Janeiro since 1922, at 700m above sea level. We went up here during our organised day tour as it can be a bit tricky and time consuming getting up to the top going alone. The statue can be seen from nearly anywhere in the city, and the views at the top are the best we’ve seen yet anywhere. Looking out across Rio we could see all the main beaches, the cemetery, the huge lake in the middle of the city, the favela areas, the airport, the sea, the huge national park behind the city and much more. We were lucky to be there on a sunny day, but to be honest; every day we’ve been here so far had been clear blue skies. It was very easy on our tour, as we got straight from the mini bus to a statue mini bus that then drove the rest of the way up.
We arrived home about 6.30pm, so it was a long day. We had a few beers and Caipirnhas in the hostel with some people (these drinks are only 60p and taste so
good), about 8pm we went out for a double date with the other English couple we have met (Jess & James). We found a restaurant that looked ok, but it was lacking atmosphere. We ordered meat and pasta meals because they were fairly cheap.
After dinner we had a quick chat in the hostel before going to bed. Had a great day today and saw so much!!!
Love V&N xxx
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