Teresopolis & Petropolis: An Attempt to Hike the Mountain

The day after Ilha Grande we wanted to hike in the National Park of Teresopolis. Before heading off, people were confused as to why we would want to visit Teresopolis - a town approx. 3 hours inland from the centre of Rio. Apparantely there was nothing to do there, but the country side is supposed ot be spectacular (surprise).

We took an early bus at 7am and arrived there at 10am. The views on the way were really impressive, espcially this one rock formation, which I later discovered it to be called "El Dedo de Deus" (The Finger of God), because it points upwards towards the sky - a sequence or three smaller ones and one larger one.

Upon arrival in Teresopolis we searched for transport to the National Park and were informed that the park was closed due to bad weather - indeed it was raining. So...there we were 3 hours away from home, exhausted from the combination of Ilha Grande and the early bus ride, with nothing to do in Teresopolis. We looked around town and indeed, it was a very dull place!

However, another hour away was a historic must see "Imperial City" - home to the Brazilian Emperor "Pedro II" from the 19th century.

So within another hour´s bus ride, we were in the next town.

Here there was definitely more life, and more tourists. It was a pretty little town cropped between the mountains. We visited the Emperor´s museum, which was their old mansion. Now this was a very interesting tour! We had to put on these slippers on top of our shoes in order to slide around and almost "polish" the wooden floors! It felt almost like ice-skating on wooden floors! We also visited a very interesting church and headed back to Rio de Janeiro.

Despite the fact that it was the most "tragically amusing" day, it was also our most expensive day with up to 7 buses in one day! All because we didnt organise our trip to hike before hand (we were also supposed to book a hike with a guide before setting off!) That ought to teach us to be more organised!

Here is an alternative sunset view of the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

As we arrived in the bus station (by the way, there are no train lines in Brazil and in South America in general) in Rio, we bought our bus ticket to Bahia for the next day - over twenty hours bus journey was waiting for us the next day...

Before taking the bus to the beach town of Itacaré in Bahia (north of Ilheus and south of Salvador) the following morning, Paulo, Nathalie´s AMAZING friend, invited us for a helicopter tour over Rio de Janeiro!! So an hour before our bus, there we were in the skies smapping 1000 pictures per second of the view over Rio. It was amazing, incredible and "oh my god!".

The perfect way to say goodbye to Rio!