Woke up late and decided upon a nice leisurely hike considering all of us were good to move. Went on the bus and ended up sitting with a girl who chatted with me (much to Chris’ jealousy) who taught me that ‘barbada’ = bad driver (or woman driver). We had a good laugh at that.
We got to the base of the mountain next to SugarLoaf Mountain and decided to hike up. Not a bad incline, all is going well until we head into the ‘real’ rail and my year of inactivity catches up with me. It’s a little killer trudging up those dirt steps, tripping over tree roots and whatnot, all the while stopping to get a perfect photo of Vero. She’s thinking “I hope he got a good shot” and I’m thinking “I’m surprised I was able to hold that camera steady without keeling over!”.
We got to the midway point and saw some monkeys in a tree. We then climbed the rest which was significantly easier and we then realized that we had climbed to the second cable car to SugarLoaf! Not knowing this beforehand, we were lucky enough to have some money on us to afford to go across as it was on our list of things to do, so why not do it now? You can imagine the confusion when we thought all along that we would hike up SugarLoaf, but it was really only accessible by cable car or rock climbing. I’m no Sly Stallone so I opted for the cable car along with Vero and Chris. We had to wait 30 minutes for the line but we enjoyed the ice cream and tales of Chris and Philipp’s journey to North Conway in the US.
We took the cable car across and was witness to the greatest sight of Rio on our trip. The sun was starting to set across the mountains around Rio and we had the best view. Chris introduced us to the panoramic view on our camera and we got some great shots of the ocean and the city. It’s amazing how such a beautiful city can also be known for its crime.
I picked up some bow and arrow trinket from the souvenir shop and then headed back down and took another (free) cable car down to the ground level. Yay to no hiking back down in the dark!
We head to an amazing restaurant which had a view of the bay, SugarLoaf and the most amazing moonrise. We also ate some miniquebas which were some meat product to dip into some excellent mustard. Accompanied with that were some potato wedge-like things which were from another root plant. This restaurant was quite expensive judging from the 38R for the two appetizers. We would have got something more but we were low on funds in our pockets as we left all spare money and cards at home due to the hike! This posed a major problem for us all when the bill came where they charged us each $7R cover charge because there was a singer that night. While her voice was beautiful, her body was not, and w were not informed of these arrangements beforehand. After scrambling together, each person had enough to pay and have bus fare of $2.20R each.
Chris, Philipp and I also came up with the grand idea of operating our own Crazy van business under the name “Chopper and The Whitey”. Chopp being draft beer and Whitey being a white russian (our trio’s drinks of choice!). Now, you may be wondering what the heck a Crazy Van is. Turns out that there are these vans that run up and down the beach strip and have some loud music playing and a guy screaming to get on board instead of waiting for the public transportation! The ride costs $2R (cheaper than the bus) and is pretty well faster than the bus as it zips down the road! Plus they usually have some great tunes playing! What more can you ask for? Comfort? Bah, only if you are lucky. The first Crazy Van Philipp and Chris took had them crouched over as there were no seats left. But who cares?
As for our business idea, we would serve drinks in the vans while transporting people across town in the first foreign operated Crazy Van where no driver speaks Portuguese! We also talked to Diego and he can handle trademarking as he is a lawyer. Vero also signed up to be our marketing person although I must ask how much marketing do you really need for an awesome idea like ‘Chopper and the Whitey’?
We felt dirt poor that night and we didn’t even have enough to get a beer from the beer stand. We did manage to secure a spot on the Crazy Van which was amazing! Cheaper, faster, and way better music than public transit! I had a great time hunched over as they zipped us home!
