Statue of Christ the Redeemer near the cathedral

From the cathedral we travel to the 1,299 foot high Sugarloaf mountain, which is one of the several monolithic granite and quartz mountains that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio. The peak is named for its shape.

 

A glass-walled car takes us from a ground station, at the base of Morro da Babilônia, to Morro da Urca and then  a second cable car ascends to Sugarloaf's summit.

 

 

Views from Sugarloaf are intermittent as clouds provide only occasional glimpses of the city and its location

We spend an hour at the top of Sugarloaf mountain which gives us time for a snack called Salgado - a tapioca pancake with cheese and ham, though a bit chewy at the edges. However, it does come with some excellent orange juice. Jeanette poses with a large coconut  (left), but does not sample it.

 

Descending from the mountain, we are bussed to Ipanema beach where we have 30-minutes to stroll beside the narrow and crowded beach. That ends the day's tour which did not include a scheduled visit to an aqueduct due to a demonstration

Back at the hotel we have a pot of green tea (left) then walk to the nearby Palace Hotel which is the one used by celebrities visiting Copacabana beach, but we find its interior not particularly impressive. In the evening the group eats at the Churrascaria Palace restaurant (below). After helping ourselves from an extensive salad bar, we are served various barbequed meats - a very enjoyable evening

Saturday, March 2nd:

 

Another hot and sunny morning as we leave the hotel at 9am for the short journey to the airport, passing one of the hill favelas (below) on the way

For our flight from Rio to the Iguassu Falls, we have managed to get seats in the Premium Economy section of the aircraft - this means we have a third seat at our disposal in the front of the aircraft which is curtained off from Economy. Flight LA 3596 in an Airbus A321 takes-off at 12:33pm and lands at 2:21pm. This is an earlier flight than on our schedule but enables the group to explore the Brazilian side of the Falls this afternoon, instead of tomorrow

We walk the full length of the Falls obtaining amazing views of this incredible natural wonder. Huge volumes of water cascade over several ledges in massive torrents - there is some spray but we avoid getting wet and do not go out onto the boardwalks where it is very wet.