Tour Rio 9 — Tijuca Forest and Corcovado Duration: 8 hours

Depar­ture: 9 am

CORCOVADO

Cor­co­v­ado — The first offi­cial expe­di­tion to the Cor­co­v­ado Moun­tain was headed by Dom Pedro I, heir to the Brazil­ian throne at the time. The Art-Deco statue sit­u­ated at the top of the 710 meters high moun­tain was inau­gu­rated in Octo­ber 12, 1931 by then-President Getúlio Vargas.

The “Cristo Reden­tor” Statue is cer­tainly the most vis­ited and admired mon­u­ment in Rio de Janeiro with its mag­nif­i­cent 360° panoramic view of the city. With the recently inau­gu­rated esca­la­tors and panoramic ele­va­tors the two hun­dred steps climb to the top can thank­fully be avoided.

The train ride through the Tijuca rain for­est takes about 30min each way dur­ing which vis­i­tors can appre­ci­ate the exu­ber­ance of the native flora.

Lunch: NOT INCLUDED

TIJUCA FOREST

Flo­resta da Tijuca — With 32km2 Tijuca For­est is the biggest urban for­est in the world and home to many extinc­tion threat­ened species. The For­est with its lime­stone caves and water­falls fea­tures more then 900 types of plants (includ­ing the largest con­cen­tra­tion of dif­fer­ent Bromelias in the coun­try) and 230 species of animals.

Inten­sive dev­as­ta­tion for wood extrac­tion and cof­fee cul­ti­va­tion caused in mid 1800s a drought that affected many of the rivers in the area. The for­est was re-planted between 1860 e 1873 to pro­tect Rio’s water sup­ply and even­tu­ally recov­ered its nat­ural exu­ber­ance and beauty.

Other attrac­tions include the Cas­cat­inha Water­fall; the Mayrink Chapel with murals painted by Cân­dido Porti­nari; the light pagoda-style gazebo at Vista Chi­nesa out­look; and the giant gran­ite pic­nic table called the Mesa do Imper­ador. Among its impres­sive peaks is the Pedra da Gávea.