The next stop on my journey round Rio de Janeiro would certainly bring out huge excitement from the big James Bond fan inside me. This next stop….. Rio’s famous ‘Sugarloaf Mountain’, or as known in Portuguese as ‘Pão de Açúcar’. To me, this mountain projects images in my mind of the famous scene of James Bond (Roger Moore) and Jaws (Richard Kiel) battling it out on top of one of the cable cars between the mountains. This scene of course is from the classic 1979 007 movie ‘Moonraker’.
So I began by heading eastwards towards the harbour of Rio and in particular to the edge of ‘Guanabara Bay’. The word ‘Guanabara’ originates from the language of the Tupis and basically means ‘a bay that is similar to the sea’. You can see where they got that idea from when you arrive at this view!
From the bottom to the top of ‘Sugarloaf Mountain’ I would be using one of the Swiss-built, glass walled, 65 person capacity cable cars, or also known as a ‘Bondinho’.
You have to actually use two cable cars, as the journey up goes via another mountain, the shorter ‘Morro da Urca’. From here you must take in the panoramic views over the harbour of Botafogo and also, the view of ‘Sugarloaf Mountain’ from this point is astonishing!
When wandering around the summit of this peak, I came across a little Brazilian friend hanging around. It was in fact a very humorous and confident Marmoset. The Marmoset was just so interested and curious to everything, and was not in any way timid as he looked out from his position on the bench.
The next cable car would take you from the 220m high ‘Morro da Urca’ up to the summit of the 396m high ‘Sugarloaf Mountain’.
Whilst on my travels around the world, I have seen some incredible views, and I can honestly say that the panoramic view from the top of here over the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, is up there with the best! It really is an astonishing sight to behold! I now can see why the ‘Harbor at Rio de Janeiro’ is one of the chosen ‘Seven Natural Wonders of the World’.
The next for me would be most definitely a cultural adventure, as I would be entering Rio’s largest favela…. Rocinha!
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