Conquering fears on top of Sugar Loaf

For those of you who are afraid of heights (i.e., John Nelson), Sugar Loaf might not be the place for you. Sugar Loaf is a major attraction in Rio and you have to take two cable cars to reach the top of the mountain. I must admit that I was even a little terrified when I saw the cable car wires from the beach at Copacabana but as we approached the first cable car station my fears subsided. Although, I´m pretty sure from the look on John´s face that his life was passing him before his eyes. We boarded the first cable car and it was almost as packed as a subway car on any given morning. All I could think about was the time the cable car from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island got stuck. Lovely. John stood in the middle of both cable cars and held onto the pole with quite the death grip.The view from the top of Sugar Loaf was amazing! Still a little scary for some. Some girls were taking pictures and one girl climbed up on the fence. John gasped and turned his head. He then muttered to me, "Don´t you even think about doing that"!

The beaches in Rio are stunning and seeing them from above made us appreciate them even more. The day was a little overcast...so our pictures don´t do Rio justice. Speaking of pictures, John and I were quite the hit with a bunch of 10-12 year-olds on a school trip. They kept coming up to us and asking if they could take their pictures with us. They didn´t speak English but after several minutes of trying to communicate, some boy said "Facebook". We finally figured out that they wanted our contact information. Thank you Facebook, for bringing the world together.

PS - There are little jungle paths you can walk through at the top of Sugar Loaf. We headed down one path and became obsessed with the little monkeys (or some might mistake them as rats) that live there. For any future travelers, please note that these monkeys may jump at you and try to bite your face off if you bother them too much with taking pictures of them.