Sugarloaf Cable Car
Red Beach & Copacabana Beach
Av. Pasteur, 520 – Urca,
Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 22290-240, Brazil
… more pix & videos on Google Maps, TA
This is a must go: high atop the Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar), which is the small hill on the western side of the ocean/bay mouth. The mouth is nearly a mile wide mouth, the Atlantic Ocean to the south and the Guanabara Bay to the north.
To the west, under the Cristo Redentor / Christ the Redeemer’s feet, is the city of Rio. SDU airport, light colored buildings, shanty towns on the dark green hills, white beaches, little islands – the Bay is dotted by more than 130 islands. All are surrounded by gleaming waters, making it picturesquely enchanting.
The cable car has two stops: the first one is at Morro da Urca (elevation 722′ or 220m), and the second/last stop is at the summit, Sugarloaf mountain (not sure mountain is fitting here), with 1,299′ (396m) elevation.
The cable car operation opened in 1912. The four gondolas we were in, have no a/c.
The cafes at both stops have great views as well.
We left our hotel at 8:30, and again, seeing dressed up (or early dressed) crowds – the carnival is raging on. Many roads were closed. Heavy traffic jam made the drive an hour long ordeal.
We finally arrived at Praça General Tibúrcio / General Tibúrcio Square, where the entrance to the cablecar is at. There wasn’t any lines, both to the gondola and ticket window. But ticket pick up was a long affair, when they demanded our ID. For Pete’s sake, why selling online but not issuing digital ticket? Secondly, on the ticket site there wasn’t any warning that ID is needed for ticket pick up.
Once the physical tickets in hand, we got up quickly.
Stop 1 @ Morro da Urca
To my left shoulder, it’s Praia do Flamengo beach.
Stop 1 has Augusto Ferreira Ramos (1860-1939) statue, the engineer who dreamed up this project in 1908. Behind him is a hallowed Love sculpture. The helicopter tour starts and ends here too.
There are trails to Morro da Urca and Sugarloaf, if you prefer to hike, instead of paying for the cable car.
We’ve our breakfast here, watching a few planes land at SDU.
The bottom right corner is Urca. Top left is Praia de Botafogo beach.
Urca is a 7,000 resident neighborhood, traditional and wealthy. It was the first Portuguese settlement, established in 1565. The French came 12 years after, in 1577. Many hikers climb the 2.3 mile out-and-back trail that lead to the Stop 1 at the cable car.
The helicopter pad, with the Christ the Redeemer statue (we chose not to go) in the background. SDU is to the right in the middle of the photo.
Stop 2 @ the summit Sugarloaf Mountain
After breakfast, we slowly made our way to the summit. Again, no queue at the cable car station.
We’ve drinks at Clássico Beach Club and hike the heavily shaded downward spiral trail.
