A day tour of Rio - part 2 : Sugarloaf mountain

The previous post on this series is here..

After lunch we were picked up and the smaller group went to Sugarloaf mountain as part of the afternoon Viator all day Rio trip.

There is a stop in between from the ground level at another mountain called Urca hill with a visitor center in it. This place had some amazing shops with art work and some nice places to eat.

The views from the cable cars were amazing. We met a total of 9 desis on this entire trip, an all time low for our international travels to date! 

It was two different cable car rides, one to the hill and from hill to mountain.

Given the dark clouds, our guide took us straight to the top and said we could always spend time in the first stop on the way back. Urca hill is full of jack fruit trees!!!! San just went nuts seeing them!

Luckily the clouds disappeared and we got to spend a good 45 minutes there, eat ice cream and take more photos. 

We got spectacular views of Rio from both the vista points and the cable car ride was great! Apparently we went on the third generation cable car. The first two cars used were on display at Urca hill

 Vaugely remember the Yellow Santa being there on Urca hill in one of the Panetone bread stores.. Some pictures are already missing from my phone! Yet another reason to blog right after a trip! Summer Christmas in the southern hemisphere is interesting.. Almost 100 degree heat on Christmas eve is a different experience.

Then we were back down to a monument where we waited for our van and were dropped off near our hotel.

San and the kids decided to try a place called Que Quieres en route to our Airbnb..

They were very happy with the food. I steered clear off it for fear of allergies and made and ate grilled cheese sandwiches and thachchi mummum in the Airbnb and we called it a night!

A video of the afternoon tour..

We still had two days, two more beaches to see and nothing else to do.. but we decided to have those last two days as relaxing days. We had done a lot with this all day tour, thanks to Viator!

From waterfalls to beaches

The previous post on this series is here..

We moved on from Buenos Aires to Rio. We got scammed right outside the airport where a fake Uber showed up to pick us up... after some tense moments once in the car, we did get out close to where we needed and after the local Airbnb lady negotiated in Portugese we got out. 

Brazil is a sharp contrast to Argentina. You cannot trust folks on the road. Scammers everywhere. Everything is expensive and the locals are not exactly the welcoming type.

The Airbnb itself was very good. A walking distance from the Ipanema beach and close enough to grocery stores. 

The kids had had enough and decided to stay in after doing groceries. San and me decided to go to the beach for a short time to see the sunset. There was so much fog that we didn't really get orange hues that day and it just started drizzling when we made it back to cook dinner!

We called it a night.. there were a lot of interesting art books in the Airbnb and we just decided to crash early after watching Rebel moon on Netflix!

The next day was going to be spent touring Rio!

We already got a glimpse of the Redeemer statue on the way from the airport. The plan was to see him up close the next day!

Heaven on earth and other things..

The previous post on this series is here..

Our original flight from Iguazu to Buenos Aires was supposed to leave at 6PM to a local BA airport. We were to go from that aiport to the hotel, sleep and wake up at 5AM and leave in the morning for our flight to Rio.

We had just rested after a long day of seeing both sides of the falls in one day (being wet all day) and woke up to news that our flight in the evening is delayed or possibly cancelled because of severe weather. 

Martin came to the rescue and said "just go to the airport now and see if any flights have seats left". So we packed in a rush from the Airbnb and went to IGR airport. The other airlines said they will give us a refund but that wasn't going to solve our problems if we were stuck in Iguazu! So we went to all other (two in total) airline counters at that airport and found that one local airline had 4 seats left for the next flight. We booked it right there and took off to BA. It was the best decision we made.

We got to check in and spend an evening on the Ricoleta side of Buenos Aires. We took a local map and walked around. I really wanted to see at least two places.. the Colon theater (which was ruled out as we needed prior arrangements to go inside) and El Ataneo, which we did walk and see.

Buenos Aires is beautiful. People are nice. We walked around the parks, took a "bench photo"

saw pitcher plants being sold on the side of the street in carts (nice natural way to keep out insects in the homes! this would be a big hit in India was my thought)

walked past beautiful buildings

had some hot drinks in the local cafe's

went and saw the bookstore that got the title of "worlds most beautiful bookstore" from National Geographic..

For a book worm who loves the smell of new books, this was defnitely heaven. This store used to be a famous theater where the likes of Carlos Gardel had once performed..(you can go read up on Gardel.. he features in my Ph.D thesis dedication). They have retained most of the theater and made an amazing book store! This is a must see if you go visit Buenos Aires..

Then we walked back to the hotel and took an Uber to eat at one of the best local Indian restaurants in BA. I liked it. The family had very high expectations and the waiter did mess up our order and got us one wrong dish and claimed this was what we ordered. Eventually they got us the right dish. Masoor daal is not a fav in this house and that was completely wasted. Yello daal tadka, we will devour any day! It was also too dark inside. Candlelight may be good for a romantic atmosphere but you still need to see who you are romancing. 

All said and done the family gave the restaurant an above average rating. For a guy who was already craving desi food after 4 days in Argentina, this was great! I gave it an A. 

After that dinner and debate on the food, we Ubered to our hotel and had a nice rest. The flight change worked in our favor. The next morning we had an uneventful trip from BA to Rio!

will pick up the travelog in Rio tomorrow..