On my last full day in Niterói, B and I decided to walk up the mountain to
Parque da Cidade. We took a taxi to the base of the mountain, well not exactly street level but a little further up, and then walked up the rest of the way. The first half was pretty hard mainly because the roads were steep. But it didn't take as long as we thought and in about 15-20 minutes we were at the road entrance of the park.
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| The view from halfway up |
From the road entrance you walk up maybe another 15 minutes, and you're rewarded with magnificent views.
Parque da Cidade lies on top of
Morro da Viração and offers one of the best views of the city. From the main viewpoint you can see the beaches of Niterói plus Rio city in the back
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| Praia de São Francisco with Rio city in the back |
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| Praia de Icaraí with the Rio-Niterói bridge in the back |
You can even go paragliding from the top. It was pretty cool; we saw a few people doing it.
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| The view must be beautiful |
This is the deck where the paragliders jump off and from where you can see the city.
There's another viewpoint at the left where you can see more of Niterói (the part that's not facing Rio). They have two lagoons on that side, and more beaches and mountains.
Small town homes surrounded by trees, mountains, a lagoon, the beach and the sea... must be so lovely living here.
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| Lagoa de Piritaninga |
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| One last panoramic shot before heading down |
Walking back down was not as tiring as going up, but a little harder on the toes.
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| Steep roads |
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| And pretty sharp curves |
We stopped for lunch at a comida por quilo restaurant and then took a bus to the part near the ferry terminal. We walked around and B did a bit of shopping at the markets and the plaza. As we were about to head back, we saw some tourists posters for the
Caminho Niemeyer which was right beside the ferry terminal, so we decided to go look for it.
Caminho Niemeyer (Niemeyer Way) is a series of architectural buildings along Niterói's bayside designed by Niemeyer (of course). It's a huge open space, and there are currently three buildings. I think there are more that have been designed but are still being constructed.
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| Teatro Popular |
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| Sun setting |
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| Not sure what these two buildings are |
We watched the sun set over the Rio-Niterói bridge before heading back to our hotel.
In the evening I attended mass at the
Igreja São Francisco. I've noticed that the masses in Brasil are pretty long (the shortest one I've attended was an hour and 10 mins, but they're quite nice. There's a lot of singing, clapping and affirmation, and there's a very strong community feeling among the churchgoers and the priest.
The next day, I stayed at the hotel mostly packing and just relaxing. Then at 2pm Delcimar drove me to the airport and I was off to
Foz do Iguaçu.
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| Another flight, another destination |
I landed at around 6:30 and took a taxi to the hostel where B and Daniel were (they flew earlier in the morning). After settling in, we walked around a bit and had dinner out. It was nice and cool when I arrived, around 16-17º. We headed back to the hostel for some drinks, and it got a bit colder, maybe 13-14º. Excited to see more of Iguaçu!
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