Sofia Somewhere

For our last morning in Rio, Ange and I headed over to Pão de Açucar . The skies weren't quite as clear as the last time I went, but we still got great views of Rio.

We decided to spend the day just relaxing and walking around the beaches :) We took the local bus from our hostel which is near Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas towards Ipanema. We got off at the foot of the lake and walked towards the beach. View of Cristo from the lagoon Biking path of 7.5km!  We went to Ipanema Beach which I found nicer, plus it's less crowded than Copacabana. The waters are also much cleaner there since it's further away from Guanabara Bay. Beaches just a few steps away from the city. What a life! No crowd in the morning :)

After a slightly late night last night, we got up a little later in the morning and headed to Lapa. I brought Ange to see the Escadaria Selarón . It was really nice to be there in the morning. There were fewer tourists and we could take our time really looking at the tiles.

After yesterday's no visibility at Cristo Redentor, we headed into the city praying for clear skies. We lucked out, it was a beautiful day. We headed to Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain)  to check out the view of the city. Pão de Açucar is a mountain peak at the mouth of Guanabara Bay, and is supposed to offer one of the best views of Rio (the other good view is from Cristo Redentor). It rises 396 meters above the city. It's accessible by cable cars, called teleférico , which run about every 20 minutes. You take a ride from the plaza/ground level to the peak of Morro da Urca (about 212 meters high; the one you can see in the picture below), and from Morro da Urca, another ride to Pão de Açúcar (on the left in the picture below). View from the ground Entrance to the cable car station

Today, we (Bianca, myself, and two other Australian guys Bianca travelled with) went into Rio de Janeiro (the city) for a bit of sightseeing. From Niterói you can either drive, take a taxi, take the bus, or take the ferry. From the hotel we took a bus to the dock and then took the ferry across to Rio (R$ 2,30 one way). Lots of people going on the ferry Ride across is about 20 minutes and it leaves every half hour View of Rio from the ferry Part of the Ponte Rio-Niterói, also the longest bridge in Brasil