Skip to main content

SUGAR LOAF



The Portuguese christened it, the French fought and lost for it and the Brazilians love it.  Apparently, this barren mountain, about 400 meters tall and made up of quartz and granite is believed to be about 600 million years old. There are a few places in Rio whose names are almost synonymous with the city itself. The Sugar Loaf (Pao de Acucar),  situated right at the mouth of the Guanabara Bay at the Urca district of Rio, is one of these. 

With an interesting name, credited to the originality of the Portuguese of the 16th century (due to its resemblance with the traditional sugar loaf), the mountain finds itself in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. Extensively popular due to its deep historical and cultural significance, international movies shot here, the cable cars and the exquisite Brazilian sunset moments, the Sugar Loaf mountain, along with  the shorter peak Morro da Urca represents the Rio sentiments to it's core.  Two cable car systems help the  tourists to reach the peak. The first cable car ascends to Morro da Urca from the base Morro da Babilonia and the second connects to the peak of Pao de Acucar. 

The view  of Rio and it's twin City Niteroi from the top of this mountain is breathtaking, to say the least, especially during the sunset of a cloudless day. Christ the Redeemer, standing majestically on the Corcovado mountain, gets lighted up in the backdrop of the deep crimson sky and the famous coastline including the likes of Copacabana and Ipanema gets charged up with the evening energy. Flights from the Rio airport fly close to the Christ and lighted up ships sail through the Guanabara bay. It's like experiencing Rio de Janeiro at its best - energetic, magnificent, rugged and musical....all at the same time.

The place is easily reachable from anywhere in Rio. While taxis are effective to reach this location from any part of the city, those interested to experience public modes of transport can try Metro lines 1 and bus number 107 or 582 from the Centro along with a bit of walking.

 I haven't been exactly a tourist in Brazil, but the few times I visited Brazil on work, I always experienced the same sentiment - that life should be and can be fun...always. And few hours on the top of the Sugar Loaf after a Brazilian day at work just reminded me the same...once again.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANTWERP CENTRAL STATION

 As deep as I can peep into my past, I always sense very fond and nostalgic memories of railway stations. So many moments of  childhood began and ended in railway stations. My love for railway stations continues and whenever I get a chance I don't miss a visit into a station to experience the magical energy of the mixed sound of thousands of  fast moving footsteps and eager voices. European settings provide infinite moments to any traveler. Antwerp is no exception too. Like any other  European city with a strong medieval connect, Antwerp owns its history and legends. While it may take pages to write about Antwerp, let me restrict this post to the first landmark of Antwerp, its getaway - its very own train station, the Antwerp Central, located in Koningin Astreidplein, in the heart of the city.   The brainchild of King Leopold II and designed by Louis Delacenserie, Antwerp Central, with its stone clad structure and huge dome, has s...
20 comments
Read more

THE YACHTS OF VOLENDAM

There is something incredibly charming about fishing villages. Be it in Europe or anywhere else in the world. Possibly due to the presence of the sea so close...and the  rituals of the sea, the fishermen are so adept at. The aspirations of the morning and the catch of the day...and the songs of the sea...of the calmness and the turbulence.  Volendam is one such fishing village, located in Northern Netherlands about thirty minutes drive from the Amsterdam central by bus... there are a plenty of them from Amsterdam Central. The village is located on the lake IJsselmeer, the largest lake in the Netherlands.  Vollendam means a "filled dam" and that is how it had started by filling an existing harbor and reclaiming the land artificially during the fourteenth century. A separate smaller canal and a new harbor was dug and this how this village was created. During the first half of twentieth century, as a part of the Dutch water management exercise, the water-body, which...
2 comments
Read more

THE CLASSIC RIVALRY OF OLD ZAGREB

We stood there absorbing the beautiful sunset that Old Zagreb, locally known as Gornji Grad, offered. The February evening was delightfully clear and presented a view to remember. In front of us,  mingling with the red tiled roofs, dominated majestically the two famous monuments - the Zagreb Cathedral of Kaptol and the St. Mark's Church of Gradec...along with the bits and the pieces of the historic panorama of a thousand years.  Few centuries back, during the medieval period, when the region was not known as Zagreb, existed two hill top settlements - the Kaptol and the Gradec, separated by the then existing rivulet Medvescak. The Kaptol housed the Cathedral and was the religious center while the Gradec was home to the merchants and the craftsmen. It took the two settlements centuries of bitter rivalry before prudence took over and they decided to unify during the nineteenth century, thus together becoming Zagreb. The reasons for this bitterness were many ranging from s...
3 comments
Read more