Rio de Janeiro: Between Waterfalls, Breathtaking Landscapes and Culture.

Take the car and 30 minutes from the hotel you will find Curto Cafe where you can have your breakfast! It allows you to enjoy any type of drink you need early in the morning and accompany it with every sweet and savory meal. The place is really well managed and has a particular business model: you can pay for the coffee what you think is right.

After having a good breakfast it's time to get moving! You will arrive by taking your car in 40 minutes to the Tijuca National Park, where the waterfalls of Horte are located. My advice is that before you venture to the falls, ask the hotel for professional guides to avoid getting lost inside them. The Tijuca National Park (Portuguese: Parque Nacional da Tijuca) was established in 1961 with the aim of protecting the mountainous area of ​​the Tijuca massif. The intention was to protect the Tijuca rainforest, the largest urban forest in the world. The Tijuca Forest was born following a reforestation at the end of the 19th century where about 60.000 endemic and exotic plants were replanted. In 1992, UNESCO declared the Atlantic forest a "biosphere reserve" and in 2012 it entered the site "Rio de Janeiro, Carioca landscapes between the mountains and the sea" in the list of world heritage sites. You will go and enjoy the hike starting at the Jequitibá waterfalls and ending at the "shower waterfall", also known as the "cascade of the box". Swimming is allowed in every waterfall you will see!

You have spent a lot of energy in your trilha between Tijuca waterfalls and therefore you need to eat something. My advice is to take the car and after 1 hour and 30 you will reach Beco do Hamburguer. This burger is very cheap but at the same time it doesn't give up on letting you appreciate the good tastes of a Brazilian burger. Taste it!

Your visit after having lunch will be one of the most famous and beautiful theaters in the country. This is 10 minutes from where you just ate. During the second half of the nineteenth century, theatrical activity in the city increased but the city did not have a structure that could correspond to the needs of the public and the importance of the Brazilian capital. Indeed, in that century Rio was the capital. Only at the beginning of the twentieth century, the construction of a large theater will be the symbol of the "First Republic" for the capital of Brazil. A competition was launched for the construction of the theater, which was won by the son of the prefect Pereira Passo, Francisco de Oliveira Passos, with the help of the French Albert Guilbert. The inspiration was a drawing of the Opéra Garnier, by Charles Garnier. The building was started in 1905 and was decorated by Eliseu Visconti, Rodolfo Amoedo and the Bernardelli brothers. The stained glass windows and mosaics are made by several European artists. The works for the construction lasted 4 years, and was inaugurated on 14 July 1909 with a capacity of 1.739 spectators. Inside the theater you can admire the sculptures by Henrique Bernardelli and the paintings by Rodolfo Amoedo and Eliseu Visconti, the latter creator of the majestic curtain, the friso above the proscenium, the ceiling above the stalls and the decorations on the roof of the "foyer. ". Over the years, the renovations have been carried out but the last ones date back to October 2008 and they involve both the inside and the outside of the theater. The reopening took place on May 27, 2010. At the beginning, until 1931only Italian and French companies and orchestras performed when the Symphony Orchestra of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro was founded.

After the visit to the municipal theater, let's go and enjoy another show: the breathtaking view of Rio at Pão de Açúcar! To reach it you have to take the car for twenty minutes and you will already be there! Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar in Portuguese) is a famous mountain that can be reached by cable car. The shapes of the Sugar Loaf excite just looking at them from below. They are composed of rock walls covered by the forest and reaching heights of 396 meters. The first cable car was designed by Augusto Ferreira Ramos and for the time it seemed an innovative project. The first cable car connecting Playa Vermelha to Morro di Urca was built on 27 October 1912. A few months later it was inaugurated by Urca at the Sugar Loaf. Over the years there have been three different versions of cable cars: in 1912 with a capacity of 22 people of German construction, in 1972 capacity of 75 people of Italian construction and the current one built in 2007 of Swiss origin with a capacity of 65 people. The beauty of the Sugar Loaf can also be admired in the 1970s James Bond film (played by Roger Moore).

After a day full of adventures like today you deserve a good dinner, that's why I recommend the Braz pizzeria! The pizzeria is located just twenty minutes by car from Pão de Açúcar. One of the best in all of Rio De Janeiro to enjoy a very good Brazilian pizza at a medium-high price. Bom jantar!

Your fourth day is ending and it's time to go back to the hotel which is only a 15 minute drive from the pizzeria. I recommend a good rest for tomorrow!