Pão de Açúcar

Thursday 26th May 1988

Another miserable day but I was determined to get some photographs of Rio de Janeiro regardless of the weather. I took the bus in the drizzle to the border of Leblon and Ipanema so that I could get photos of Ipanema Beach and the Lord Jim Pub.

The beach was deserted, and the palm trees swayed in the wind. A few joggers splashed along through the shallow puddles on the promenade. I continued along Copacabana Beach which looked bleak under the low grey cloud, a far cry from the lively crowded beach full of glamourous people that it was on Sunday.

I took the 511 bus, when I eventually got one to stop, from the Avenida N. S. Copacabana to the Sugar Loaf Mountain or Pão de Açúcar. Outside the cable car station a few miserable looking stall holders crouched under polythene sheets which protected their souvenir T-shirts and knick-knacks from the rain.

The Sugarloaf Cable Car (Portuguese: Bondinho do Pão de Açúcar) is a cableway system. The first part runs between Praia Vermelha and Morro da Urca (at 722 feet (220 metres)), from where the second rises to the summit of the 1,299-foot (396 metres) Sugarloaf Mountain.

The cableway was envisioned by the engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos in 1908 who sought support from well-known figures of Rio's high society to promote its construction. Opened in 1912, it was only the third cableway to be built in the world. In 1972 the cars were updated, growing from a capacity of 22 to 75, and in 1979 it featured in an action scene for the James Bond film Moonraker.

I paid 540 Cruzados for a return ticket to top of the Sugar Loaf. This was a two-stage trip, and at the first stop there was a good view of central Rio and the yachts mooring in the bay, but it was gloomy and drizzling with rain.

There were only four other sightseers. Two elderly women and a couple of young lovers who stared into each other’s eyes on the balcony, oblivious to the weather and the view. As the cable car ascended to the ultimate summit station we passed into the cloud and from then on it was like being on the inside of a ping pong ball.

At the top you could barely see thirty metres to the souvenir shop and the tourist café. We had a quick look around in the rain, seeing dejected tropical birds in cages around the terrace before sitting in the top station to await the car back down to the bottom.

I caught the 511 bus, which went back to Copacabana by a long, torturous route which meant that I got back too late to catch the film at 14:00 hrs. at the cinema. Thus, I had two hours to kill before the next showing.

I had lunch in McDonalds and some excellent chocolate cake on the corner of Avenida Perú and Avenida Atlantica. Then I went window shopping. I bought a cheap slide film, which was cut from a long reel (bulk film spool) and loaded into a recycled film cassette to fit the camera.

This caused problems as the slide film was put into a print film canister and it was developed accordingly to give me oddly coloured 35mm transparencies as a record of my journey between Rio de Janeiro to Manaus in Amazonas.

I also got some more laundry washing powder and looked in the beachwear shops at the T-shirts and minimal bikinis in colourful displays. On my way back to the cinema I met Lesley, the Australian girl who was with Harry when I last saw her in Cuzco and we caught up on our recent experiences.

I dashed down to the flicks just in time for the start of the programme. There was a bizarre first film which presented black and white slides of bound and violently murdered people with an operatic soundtrack.

The main film was “Saigon”, a good cop partnership movie set in the unusual setting of Vietnam. “Off Limits” is a 1988 action-thriller film set during the Vietnam War starring Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines and directed by Christopher Crowe. The term "off limits" referred to the area where the original crime took place, an area of Saigon off limits to military personnel. The name of the film was changed to Saigon or Saigon: Off Limits when it was released throughout the rest of the world.

On the way back to the Youth Hostel I bought a red and white striped top for my mum. I went out for a pizza and a couple of beers with Jim and Nikki. She had been valiantly trying to learn Portuguese from Wilson, the hostel doorman and security guard.

After eating Jim came with me on the 127 bus as far as the cake shop on Avenida Perú and then I was on my own on the bus with my baggage, feeling very vulnerable as we passed a particularly dodgy area near the Rodoviário Bus Terminal.

I talked to an English-speaking Brazilian girl while waiting for the bus which left promptly at 23:30 hrs. I slept for most of the night, waking only for the two stops for something to drink.