Mr & Mrs – A blog of our round the world trip travelling through South America and South East Asia » Gallery: Ascending Sugarloaf 007 style (Pão de Açúcar)

Gallery: Ascending Sugarloaf 007 style (Pão de Açúcar)

Posted by lynette on May 26, 2009, at 2:59 am | Category: Brazil, General, Photos | 2 comments


View at Picasa You can't deny it, The Sugarloaf is pretty impressive!25-May-2009 18:34, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100

The Sugarloaf (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar) is a monolith which is instantaneously recognisable as a sight of Rio De Janeiro. That, coupled with the fact there’s a Sugarloaf elsewhere than Monmouth (Steve: Actually, Abergavenny )meant it was a must do on the Mace sightseeing tour. Sagui monkeys and fresh coconut water accompanied us on this Sugarloaf walk though…

Yay! Lynette’s turn to write a post on the website thingymabob!

Just a couple of corrections on our Christ the Redeember climb – I did not make climbing look easy, two seconds after the picture was taken, I slipped on the rock and bashed my elbow. Secondly, Cindy at the hostel had told us to get tickets at the bottom – a fact I reminded Steve of before our massive jaunt, however he always knows best…..

So, Sunday’s recovery from Saturday night Lapa antics included another massive breakfast (we’ve discovered eating big at breakfast negates the need for lunch so we can save pennies til dinner). Then another trip to Copacabana beach via the fabulous Rio tube system – seriously, London Underground Directors could learn a lot from this city and how to manage a tube system! We lunched on Salgados (deep fried pastry with various fillings – it’s hard to find food in Brazil that isn’t deep fried). At night, Steve made a big batch of spag bol (when in Rome and all that, ahem…) via a ‘helpful’ chef adding two litres of water to it when it was nearly done as he was making lasagne and thought the pot was his. Mr Mace was not amused.


View from Cara de Cão, you can see the might of Christ the Redeemer, and also some people landing with a much bigger travel budget than us! View at Picasa View from Cara de Cão, you can see the might of Christ the Redeemer, and also some people landing with a much bigger travel budget than us!25-May-2009 15:36, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100

Then we managed to get 9 people around the table for the universal game of s**thead – it was the only game we could all agree on (Germans, Dutch, English, Australian) although Cindy proceeded to tell us about this excellent card game the Peruvians had devised that she wanted to teach us – the cards are divvied out and everyone puts a card down one at a time, when two cards match you have to smack your hand on them as soon as possible and shout out – she was slightly disappointed when we told her Snap was quite a well known game around the world but we gave thanks to the Peruvians anyway!


They are used to being fed – they’d never be this tame otherwise! View at Picasa They are used to being fed – they'd never be this tame otherwise!25-May-2009 14:21, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100

Monday we decided to climb one of the other top attractions in Rio – the Sugarloaf (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar). If you don’t know what it is, check out the photos below OR cast your mind back to Moonraker…a 007 classic and Jaws chasing Bond in a cable car. It’s one of many lumps of granite and quartz in and around Guanabara Bay. The peak is reached by cable car – running from ground level to the peak of Cara de Cão – the mound just in front of the Sugar Loaf, then to the peak of the Sugar Loaf.

We had been told by fellow hostellers that you can hike to the peak of Cara de Cão and then get the cable car for the second stint so we did this. A much easier hike than Corcovado, taking only 20mins, but en route we saw many monkeys, beautiful fauna, birds and butterflies. The forests just smell so fresh as well – if you stop for a few minutes mid-hike and just stand, all you can hear are birds and monkeys calling to each other. If you stop for more than a few minutes, Steve tries to talk to them in their language of caws and clicks…


The view from The Sugarloaf, absolutely spectacular! Unfortunately the Canon EOS had run out of batteries, and the lens on the Panasonic is damaged slightly (always shows in sky shots). View at Picasa The view from The Sugarloaf, absolutely spectacular! Unfortunately the Canon EOS had run out of batteries, and the lens on the Panasonic is damaged slightly (always shows in sky shots).25-May-2009 16:18, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100

The views from the summit were again amazing and we took lots of pictures including some with a view of Christ the Redeemer in the background – you can see how much higher it is! A helipad is situated on the Cara de Cão so we saw a few ‘copters coming in to land which was slightly surreal and planes turning in the sky above the bay before going into land at Rio airport. We took the cable car to the top, again beautiful views and lizards in the grounds. We made our way back the same way we came up (lesson learnt from Corcovado!) and went to a very quiet, beautiful beach at the foot of the Sugarloaf – no hassle from sellers at this beach!


Drinking fresh cocoonut juice… out of coconuts! How green can you get? View at Picasa Drinking fresh cocoonut juice… out of coconuts! How green can you get?25-May-2009 18:00, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100

We bought a coconut each to drink from (R$2.50/80p each) – these are sold all over Rio and traders hack the top off of fresh coconuts and stick a straw in them – I think it’s possibly one of the nicest, most refreshing drinks I have ever tasted and we’re looking forward to many more as we tour around! One thing the Brazilians do exceptionally well are juices (that and having the pertest bums I’ve ever seen!).

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View at Picasa You can't deny it, The Sugarloaf is pretty impressive!25-May-2009 18:34, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Statue of Chopin, overlooking Praia Vermelha – a great beach just next to the Sugarloaf.25-May-2009 14:12, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 7.0, 9.1mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Yay! Monkeys! Apparently this is a Mico Sagui monkey.25-May-2009 14:19, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 4.6, 15.4mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa And another one!25-May-2009 14:21, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa They are used to being fed – they'd never be this tame otherwise!25-May-2009 14:21, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Although some look they'd happily chew on a finger if it was offered!25-May-2009 14:22, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The start of the trail to the top of Cara de Cão.25-May-2009 14:49, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400	View at Picasa Looking down some steep steps, about the height of Lynette's mid-thigh each.25-May-2009 14:50, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400	View at Picasa Striding along proudly wearing my… jesus sandals?!25-May-2009 14:51, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa The cable car at the top of Cara de Cão, heading towards The Sugarloaf itself.25-May-2009 15:13, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Some beautiful fauna.25-May-2009 15:13, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The view of The Sugarloaf from Cara de Cão.25-May-2009 15:19, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 7.3, 9.9mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Twin Towers Rio style. No… wait… thats an airport on the right!25-May-2009 15:19, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 10.0, 17.4mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Always tough posing for a shot in Rio, you have to get it in quickly before the sun blinds you.25-May-2009 15:21, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The first cable car that carried the pioneers to the top of The Sugarloaf!25-May-2009 15:24, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Sometimes you need a trained monkey, just to take those couple shots that would save on memory card space…25-May-2009 15:24, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The view from Cara de Cão, our hostel is next to the second black tower block from the left.25-May-2009 15:26, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.7, 6.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa View from Cara de Cão, you can see the might of Christ the Redeemer, and also some people landing with a much bigger travel budget than us!25-May-2009 15:36, Panasonic DMC-FX3, 5.6, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 100

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Joy Hamill

May 27th, 2009 at 4:52 pm

Hey u guys!! Glad to see you pair are having an amazing time. Love the photos! You will be so fit by the time you return with all that hiking! LOL. Love the curls Lynette!! New hair style – reminds me of our school days!! Ha.