Rio de Janeiro: Day Two

Our first day in Rio was exciting, but our second day was just as good, if not better! Having already taken the train up Corcovado Mountain to Cristo Redentor on Day One, on Day Two Claudio and I decided to go up the other famous mountain in the city: Pão de Açúcar, or Sugarloaf Mountain. Unsurprisingly, its name comes from its resemblance to a sugarloaf, and it is one of many mountains with the same name around the world - I know there's a Pan de Azúcar in Chile and a Sugarloaf in Wales (neither of which I've visited yet!) - but this one in Rio is definitely the most famous and the most impressive.

In order to get to the peak of the mountain, you can climb up the vertical rock face, but like most people, we decided to take the cable car! On the way up you can see Praia Vermelha (Red Beach), which is a very picturesque little beach with lots of palm trees.

The cable car's first stop is Morro da Urca, a smaller mountain overlooked by Pão de Açúcar. Here you have some great views over the sights of the city, including Corcovado, Guanabara Bay and the Rio-Niterói Bridge, and of Pão de Açúcar itself.

Then we took the cable car up to the top of Pão de Açúcar, where there were even more amazing views, especially of Praia Vermelha and Copacabana. 

We stayed up there for a while enjoying the views from every angle. We also took the opportunity to try açaí for the first time, a fruit which is supposed to have lots of health benefits. It is served frozen and tastes really nice! 

One interesting thing about the top of Pão de Açúcar is that it has an area of rainforest. There are lots of jackfruits in the trees and there's even a special wishing tree, where you can make a wish as you pass through its two trunks!

We also saw some grand-looking buildings from above, which we decided to walk past once we were back down from the mountain. One of them was a university campus, but I'm not sure what the others were. To be honest, they looked more impressive from above!

Once we'd walked past the buildings, we were in the Botafogo area of the city. We had lunch in a shopping centre nearby, which had a great viewpoint of Botafogo Beach. 

Afterwards, we went for a walk along the beach, which I would actually say was one of the most stunning beaches we visited in Rio, thanks to its position opposite Morro da Urca and Pão de Açúcar. You also have a pretty good view of Cristo Redentor and Corcovado from there. The only downside is that the water is very polluted, so you can't swim or even paddle there. Even so, I would highly recommend going for a walk there, just because it's such a picturesque place.

Our next stop of the day was Ipanema Beach, where we retraced our route from the previous day onto Pedra do Arpoador peninsula, this time with our phones in order to take pictures, and a coconut to drink from!

The peninsula gives you a great viewpoint of the small and paradisiacal Praia do Diabo (Devil's Beach!).

And of course, it also gives you an amazing view of Ipanema and Leblon Beaches, as well as Morro Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers Mountain) and Corcovado. 

Sitting there with Claudio, drinking from our coconut, I really had the feeling that moments like this are what life is all about.

After relaxing on the peninsula, we decided to walk all the way along the stretch of beach, from Ipanema to Leblon. It doesn't look so far on the map, but believe me, it takes a long time when you're walking along the sand!

I think that Leblon was my favourite beach that we visited in Rio. (Though there were many that we didn't have time to go to!) Even though Ipanema is more famous, Leblon is more peaceful and has the advantage of being right next to Dois Irmãos, which makes it a really stunning setting.

We rounded off this amazing day by watching the sunset at Mirante do Leblon, a viewpoint next to the beach. This is actually one factor in which Chile's beaches beat Brazil's - we may get cold water from the Pacific Ocean, but being on the west coast means we get truly stunning sunsets over the sea! All the same, the views from Mirante do Leblon are still pretty spectacular.

We also had fun taking pictures using this machine located at the viewpoint!

All in all, Day Two in Rio really was one to remember. I hope to return to these places, especially Ipanema and Leblon beaches, at some point in the future.

Day Three was mostly a very rainy day, so we decided to focus on sightseeing instead of beaches. We saw lots of really interesting places, and I'm looking forward to writing about them within the coming days!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day One here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Three here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Four here!

Read about Arraial do Cabo here!