Mountains, Statues and Street Art ?

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is known as the home of Carnival, a gaudy celebration of the season before Lent.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, we are not here for the mile long parade and competition for the best samba dancers and the best float and the best costumes.  Our tour took us past the Samba Dome, a street 1 mile long, lined with bleachers on both sides towering over the street where the official event takes place.  Thousands of people pay huge amounts to buy a seat in the bleacher.  As with the Rose Bowl Parade, work on the event takes several weeks, but there is nothing we could see, since everything is done inside a huge building.

Another thing Rio is famous for is beaches - Copacabana, Iponema and dozen of others attract locals and visitors to stroll or lie on the beach or sit under umbrellas watching the sea.  Watching is all you should do since the water is so polluted that we were advised not to even put a foot in the water.  We did not go to any of the beaches, but saw them from a distance when we visited two of Rio's other attractions.  The temperature has been in the 90's with high humidity, so this pictures are hazy but that is all we could see.

The first station

The station at the top

Sugar Loaf towers over the harbor.  It is possible to climb the face of it, and we did see a group doing just that, but it is much easier to ride a cable car.  Actually, there are two stretches of cable car.  We did not stop at the first landing any longer than it took us to walk a short way through a tropical forest with jackfruit and orchids on the trees.  The second, and steeper, cable car took us to the top of Sugar for views over Rio, the harbor and surrounding area.  

After a short stay at the top, we descended to the lower station to watch the sun set over the mountains.

 

When the sun had set, we returned to the station in time to see the moon appear out of the clouds and pose beside Sugar Loaf.  (I had to stand on a bench to get a picture above the glass partition.)

That was enough for one day.  More tomorrow.