Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Countryside, Beaches and Sugarloaf Mountain

On May 6th we left Buzios (Brazil) and drove back to Rio de Janeiro. The drive from Buzios to Rio was a great way to see the countryside of Brazil. There is a lot of rich vegetation and mountains/hills. It was beautiful.

Back in Rio we headed to the beach. First we went to the Ipanema Beach:

We then headed to Copacabana Beach. This beautiful beach is world famous, and stretches 4km long. It brings in tons of tourists, and the area is full of restaurants and bars. We went during the late afternoon, and it was quiet and beautiful.

That evening we had the opportunity to try a traditional Brazilian BBQ. We went to a really nice restaurant with a full buffet, and then at your table as you sit and eat your meal the waiters walk by with skewers of meat, and they will cut off pieces for you right onto your plate. There were so many varieties of meats, all BBQ’d on skewers. It was delicious!

The following day we went to Sugarloaf Mountain (Pao de Acucar in Portuguese), one of the major attractions in Rio. It is 396m high and offers amazing views of the city. In order to get up to Sugarloaf we had to take two cable cars, one to get to Morro da Urca (the mountain on the left in the photo below) and then another to get to Sugarloaf (the mountain on the right in the photo).

Once we got to Morro da Urca (before taking the 2nd cable car to the Sugarloaf) we stopped to see the amazing view. You can see Christ the Redeemer in the background of my photo below (the statue at the top of the mountain in the middle of the photo).

While on Morro da Urca we ran into a couple little monkeys! They were so friendly and cute!

We also saw a pretty large lizard!

After having some lunch and spending some time with the monkeys we took the 2nd cable car over from Morro da Urca to Sugarloaf Mountain.

From Sugarloaf looking back at Morro da Urca :

From Sugarloaf we had an amazing view of Copacabana Beach:

We also had a view of the Christ Redeemer statue (it’s hard to see, but he’s on top of the mountain in the background):

I’m really glad I went up to Sugarloaf to see the views. I found the views  of Rio de Janeiro to be better on Sugarloaf than from Christ the Redeemer’s mountain. I’m loving Rio. The city has so much life and culture!