- The continuing adventures of the happy soles in Rio, more sights, more samba, more futbol, more food!

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The continuing adventures of the happy soles in Rio, more sights, more samba, more futbol, more food!

Day 6: Pao de Acucar, Porcao Churrascaria, Sambodromo, Maracana Stadium, Cable Car ride to Sta. Tereza district, second attempt at samba at Rio Scenarium

Bom dia, happy soles!

We woke up to another sunny morning in Copacabana ready for another jam-packed day of adventure. Our lovely Brazilian guide Cristiane wanted us to see as many Rio spots as possible and happy soles that we are, we jumped at the chance!

First stop was the Pao de Acucar, or Sugar Loaf mountain. Below is the initial station where Cristiane bought us tickets for a ride in the glass-paneled cable cars.

YES! We’re riding that one!

Sugarloaf Mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar), is a peak situated at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf of sugar.

To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro de Açúcar, 220 meters high, where I had this photo taken.

The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The cable cars hold up to 65 passengers. The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. Each car ride is about three minute from start to finish.

Audie poses with some beautiful locals.

That’s the Sugar Loaf behind us!

The mountain is only one of several monolithic morros of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water’s edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-paneled cable car (in popular Portuguese, bondinho - more properly called teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Cara de Cão every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car goes from the base, not the peak of the Babilônia mountain, to the Urca mountain and then to the Pão de Açúcar mountain.

Once at the top, you can then see a breathtaking view of Rio de Janeiro. Here, Oona points to where our hotel in Copacabana is.

Other tourists and locals take in the view too.

Small world! We met a Filipina who looks after a shop selling precious stones at the top of the Sugar Loaf. She is Mrs. Vida Valenciano, and turns out to be a cousin of Gary V! What are the odds! It was wonderful to meet a kababayan here. She even gave us little stones as gifts.

Lunchtime! Cristiane said it was time for us to to go another Churrascaria, at Porcao’s Rio this time. We all we’re blown away by our first taste of churrasco back in Sao Paulo, so that whetted our appetite even more!

Audrey salivates over the grilled chicken brought to our table by the pasador.

Cris is all smiles as her favorite fillet mignon finally arrives.

Tummy satisfied, she took us to the next destination, the Sambodromo.

The Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí or simply Sambadrome, also known as the Apoteose Square, is a purpose-built parade area in downtown Rio where samba schools parade competitively each year during the Carnival. The parade attracts many thousands of Brazilians and foreign tourists each year.

The Sambodromo was designed and built by Oscar Niemeyer (seems like he built everything around here! :) ) in 1984. It consists of 700 m stretch of the Marques de Sapucai street converted into a permanent parade ground with bleachers built on either side for spectators. Its capacity is 90,000. The complex includes an area located at the end of the parade route, the Praça da Apoteose(Apotheosis Square), where the bleachers are set further back from the parade area, creating a square where revelers gather as they end their parade.

In December, the samba schools begin holding technical rehearsals at the Sambadrome, leading up to Carnival.

Outside Carnival season, the Praça da Apoteose is occasionally used as a venue for international music concerts. Beyonce recently shook her famous behind here.

Here, Oona and I tried on the elaborate samba costumes and imagined the roar of the crowds cheering us on to dance. We look positively poised here, but in truth, the headdresses weigh something like 10 kilos each. Those dancers really must have very strong necks to last day-long samba dancing wearing these!

The guys, realizing how heavy the headdresses were, passed on the chance to pose in costume, so they just posed with us. Not fair!

My most awaited itinerary of the day is next: the Maracana stadium!

Friends, I wish I can share with you how excited I am to finally be able to visit this place. It is something only a lifelong fan of Brazilian football will understand. Before I’m only able to see this stadium in Google or YouTube, but here I am breathing it all in!

The Estadio do Maracana, officially Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, is an 82,000-capacity open air stadium which was built in 1950 when Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup. It is now the venue to games between Rio football clubs Flamengo, Fluminense and Vasco da Gama.

Photos of Brazilian football superstars adorn the walls on the entrance to the stadium. Here Chico takes on Ronaldo.

Standing in Pele’s footsteps. Pele is a Brazilian football legend and widely regarded as the greatest player of all time!

Ooooooooooh my girl friends back in Cebu would be so jealous of this pic. Kaka is a current member of the the Selecao, or the Brazilian national team. Why do girls love him? Easy. He’s hot!

Here, Oona and I show our love.

So kilig to the bones to be sandwiched between Ronaldo and Kaka!

Inside the stadium, we witness some children being taught basic dribbling skills.

Will you look at this beauty…

There were no games scheduled because of the ongoing World Cup, so we imagined a live game before us. See us rejoice after our team scores a GOAL!

Oh no, the other team equalized!

The stadium also houses a museum of relics from the 1950’s On the background you can see part of the exact goal post and net Pele scored his 1,000th goal in.

I defintely enjoyed the visit to Maracana a lot. In 2014, Brazil will host the World Cup. how do you say, “I will be back!” in Portuguese? :)

Cristiane then took us to a ride in a old tram to the artsy district of Sta. Tereza. The ride was crickety, bumpy and fun! A lot of locals still use it as a daily mode of transportation.

Ammiel puts his “moves” to good use. Here he chats up Audrey, a French tourist he gave up his seat for. You can see in his face, it was worth it.

A little bit of trivia: once we were in Sta. Tereza, he bought a painting from a local artist and had it signed “The Day I Met Audrey”. The air in Rio can bring out the romantic in us!

Sta. Tereza was full of quaint little shops selling artworks, trinkets, postcards, dolls, what-have you. It’s also home to cute little Carioca children like this new friend we met, Ana Cristina.

Without warning, Cristiane announced it was time for us to try another night of Samba dancing! The first time we were all shy and painfully aware of how bad we were at it. Except for Chico, who was a natural. So Cristiane said she won’t let us go home without having learned, so off we went to Rio Scenarium in Lapa District.

But first things first, dinner!

The Rio Scenarium has three floors of space where you can eat and samba the night away. We positively loved the antique decors, especially this wall full of old clocks.

Audie, Oona and I pose in this old carriage.

That evening, we experienced another kind of Brazilian music. Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance that developed from European classics styles of folk musics such as “Chula” and “Xotis” (term that originated the derivate “Xote”), as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Equally intoxicating as samba!