Swinging Over Rio

Wednesday 28 February

Mornings are exquisite here – the sun shines, the sky and the sea are a rich blue, and it is so relaxing. That was till we got to breakfast. We spent an interesting meal, inside today, watching the workmen take down the awning sections, cut the cloth covering from the frame and hacksaw the metal struts into manageable sizes to carry away. The awning hadn’t seemed in bad condition (of course it might have leaked in the rain – but we wouldn’t know anything about that!). We treated ourselves to more delectable food, before meeting up once more with Marco.

Today we were visiting Sugar Loaf Mountain – another high spot for Colin to contend with – and how! We knew we were to reach the top by cable car – we have been in a few now, so we thought “no problems there”. But when we reached the station, we could see that the ride was divided into two – the first section to a lower mountain peak, before the assent to Sugar Loaf itself. Whereas before most of the cable cars had swung over the canopy of rain forests, these cables looped out over the houses and high rises of Rio. To make matters worse, when we arrived a large open-top crate was swinging its way towards the ground, looking very precarious – for a few mad moments we thought this was the cable car! But no, the cars were like large versions of the pods on the London Eye, and could hold 70 people at once. A much safer option. Marco bought the tickets and we only had to wait a few minutes before the bell clanged to announce the imminent departure of the next car. I immediately made for a window space, while Colin and Marco stood in the centre (they both suffer from similar reactions to heights). The first ride up only took three minutes, but dangled ominously as it reached the top, to make sure entry was straight into the parking slot. At this level there is a large paved area, on several levels from which you can see Rio from the entrance of Guanabara Bay, with its yachts, forts on either peninsula protecting the port and huge span bridge, the Pont Rio Niterói, linking Rio with the far side of the bay (before this bridge was built it used to take seven hours to travel from one fort to the other by road – now it takes just over an hour). There are currently large construction works in progress on this level to replace the amphitheatre built in the 1970’s for concerts, a samba school and open air dining. The first cable car link was opened to the public in 1912, with the second, going to the top of the Sugar Loaf, inaugurated just a year later. The current cable cars were installed in 1972, replacing the old wooden carriers that had operated since the opening.

We caught the next car going up to the second level – the very top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. This swung out at about 200 metres above the traffic below, and climbed steeply to the summit at 396 metres - a distance of only 850 metres - traveling at 36 kms per hour. We found ourselves on a small balcony surrounding the cable car housing, with a path leading down to Botanical Gardens which we were going to explore, until we realized the path was a long steep concrete incline with a rope rail in the middle to hang on to – how on earth would you make it back – it is, of course, possible to walk all the way down to ground level! – but that would have been a step too far. We wandered around the summit for half an hour, until the next car was signaled to leave. Going down was like plunging over the edge when I went hang gliding, made even worse when we met the corresponding car traveling up – and it appeared that we were plummeting down at an even faster rate – but once it was past us the speed returned to normal. At the bottom we gazed up at where we had been, and Colin thought it was frightening and glad his “life in the clouds” is over.

Marco took us on a tour of the city, driving along the streets we had seen from the air, past hotels that have had their day – such as Hotel Gloria – a real hot spot in the 1930’s where all the movie stars stayed, but past its prime now that the road has moved it “inland”. There were lots of long narrow parks between the new road and the old building line, all with different sculptures and memorials dedicated to soldiers fallen, past presidents and mayors, and local artists. The city centre itself was a maze of traffic, all trying to get where they wanted to go as quickly as possible – but they do obey traffic lights! We saw some of the old colonial buildings in a part of the city that is now run down, and caters mainly for antiques and flea market trade. There was a square built in the time of the French influence, when they were trying to take this area away from the dominating Portuguese, with its Opera House, cinemas, and government buildings. The centre was full of statues and fountains on every corner. We saw the National Library which contains a copy of every book published in Portuguese, different university buildings, usually originating from the early 20th century, as well as the modern sectors of high rise financial buildings. We stopped at the cathedral – we had seen this yesterday from the statue of Christ the Redeemer. Close up it was a towering multisided pyramid without a point (with a scary ladder up one of the sloping sides – for maintenance work I suppose). It was extremely hot outside – it was now midday and the sun was at its height – but entering inside it was cool and gloomy, lit only by the light seeping through the four tall sloping stained glassed windows that went from the roof to within about ten feet of the ground (just tall enough for doorways and a bit). They were in reds and blues and oranges and yellows. The small flattened apex of the pyramid contained a white glass cross the only white light in the cathedral. The building was built in the 1970’s replacing the old Portuguese style cathedral, with this modern, serene church, that felt very comfortable. There was a simple altar, with Jesus impaled on a large cross, all made of wood hanging from the ceiling, just in front, and a small chapel behind the altar, separated by a white marble wall, for private prayer. A really great example of how churches should be today – welcoming, but religious at the same time, and not overtly ostentacious.

From here we continued our tour around the city, eventually arriving back at the hotel. We said “goodbye” to Marco and our driver – we would not be meeting up with them again as we were going to have an easy couple of days around the pool, till it was time to move on again. We decided to walk up the beach (in the opposite direction to the restaurant last night) to see if we could find Monica – who should be flying home tonight. The journey was a little further than last night – or perhaps it was just hotter, as the still sun beat relentlessly down. We found the Luxor Regent hotel, and luckily Monica was still in her room – she wouldn’t be leaving until 17.00. We had a couple of drinks while catching up with her news and exploits in Rio. Linda and Mike joined us a little later – they too were now traveling home on the same planes as Monica – Rio to Madrid, Madrid to Heathrow. Arriving around midday tomorrow! We stayed a couple of hours, before returning to our hotel to sit by the pool for the last few hours of the afternoon, drinking tea.

We decided not to be too late going out tonight – we could do with an early night – so left to explore the restaurants along the esplanade – we didn’t want to go too far away from the hotel. We looked at half a dozen café style establishments, all offering very similar food, and “plumped” for one where the waiter was a little more persuasive. Colin chose spaghetti (no chance him of getting withdrawal symptoms for pasta), this time with seafood sauce (he actually asked for basil and tomato sauce, but that’s not what arrived), while I selected sole meniuere, with capers, shrimps and mushrooms – and chips! We shared a green salad, which came with rocket, lettuce, palm hearts, green peppers and, surprise, surprise – processed tinned peas! Colin was ecstatic – apparently he loves this type of peas – and I have known him for forty years and never knew! The meals were huge – an enormous bowl of pasta and two huge fillets of sole, so neither of us could finish our dishes. But, of course, Colin had room for dessert and ordered a milk pudding with burnt caramel topping – crème caramel to you and me! – but the waiter brought two, so he just had to eat both! The wine was cheap, but good. We wandered back to the hotel and spent a short while checking phone messages and emails, as we had expected to hear about Andy and Kerry’s new arrival today. But there were no messages on either phone or the computer - so just hoped everything was going according to plan. We managed our early night, and were asleep soon after 23.00, wondering if we would get a message during the night!