Sugarloaf and Corcovado...famous spots in Rio

Another view of Rio from the statue
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Once the boys arrived, we began some sightseeing! The first thing we saw was Sugarloaf, or Pao de Açucar in Portuguese. Sugarloaf is a huge mountain that has the most amazing views of Rio! The name Pao de Açucar was appointed to the mountain by the Portuguese during the extraction of brazilian sugar canes in century XVI and XVII. After the sugar cane was boiled and refined, the sugar blocks were placed in mud containers that had a conical shape called sugarloaves for transport to Europe. Thus, the name Sugarloaf. It stands at 4,290 feet tall!!! The top of Sugarloaf still has species that are extinct in other places along the coastline of Brazil. It was like a dense tropical jungle with so many plants and animals...we even saw the cutest little monkey!

Clouds are covering the top of Sugarloaf, but this picture gives an idea of just how big it is! The gondola ride was fun!
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To get to the top of Sugarloaf, we had to take two separate gondolas. Jill was so scared, it was funny. You could see the most beautiful scenery from the gondola windows. Rio is so beautiful because there are all the mountainous islands dotting the deep blue ocean. I have never seen another city with this landscape.

We also went to see Corcovado, The Statue of Christ the Redeemer. Its history starts in the XVIth Century when the Portuguese named the mountain Pináculo da Tentação, meaning "The Pinnacle of Temptation". It was then renamed Corcovado, a name derived from its form, which resembles a hump or hunchback. Then in 1859 the Vincentian father Pedro Maria Boss arrived Rio de Janeiro and was struck by the mysterious beauty of the Corcovado mountain and suggested the the construction of a religious monument in honor of Princess Isabel, which in 1921 gave way for the idea of a great statue of Christ viewable by all in the marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro. So, in 1927,  construction began and in 1931 the statue was complete.  In fact, The monument to Christ the Redeemer on the Corcovado mountain is the largest art déco sculpture in the world. Getting up there was no easy task though. First of all, our tour guide was certifiably crazy. She told us how she was born in the jungles of the Amazon and that missionaries came to save her. She told us that she spoke nine languages, one of which allowed her to work for the United Nations in East Timor, Indonesia. She kept inviting us to this party...we thought she was saying "dance party" but with her accent we couldn´t understand that she was actually saying "trance party". We later found out from our travel agent that not only is she on drugs, but is also a part time hooker! Lovely. Imagine spending all day with that, it was not easy.

Ha Ha! Look how scared Jill is of the gondola!!
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Rio is so beautiful!!! Next blog is going to be about the Samba Parade during Carnaval!