Sugarloaf

This morning we decided to go up to the Sugarloaf Mountain. We left at 11:30 and caught a bus to the base of the mountain. There are two mountains that are connected by cable cars, the smaller of the two is called Morro da Urca and then the more famous larger one is the Pao de Acucar. Having been told that there would be a few hour wait just to get tickets we planned on getting there by 12:30-1 so that we  could be up there for the 5pm sunset. However, because the majority of the tourists have left Rio, we didn't have to wait at all and went straight up! While this was convenient for us, we had already had our heart set on wanting to see the sunset so we had to come up with some stuff to do to pass the next 4 hours... :) Luckily we had packed sandwiches, water and granola bars, so we were all set on food. We went down to a lower part of the mountain where it was shady and we could still see the view. After 5 minutes our legs started to get itchy and we realized that there were mosquitoes everywhere. So we decided to go up closer to more people so we would have a smaller chance of getting bitten. We went up to where they had a gift shop to see what they had. They had the most expensive things ever!! A keychain was at least 20R which is about $10. Everything was so overpriced! We did not spend very much time in there, especially since every shelf and wall had a sign saying please do NOT TOUCH!!! ha. that didn't stop us or anybody else, after all who wants to spend money on overpriced things that they can't handle! An argument broke out between a customer and an employee about God knows what so we left to find some shade to sit it for a bit. While we were sitting, we saw the trees moving and then I saw a little monkey poke it's head out of the trees. I got closer for a better view. It had little brown eyes, a long tail, and  a brown body with some white whiskers on it's face. It jumped on to the railing and was eyeing us. I took many pictures of our monkey friends. They posed a good 20-30 min for photos :) We took a bathroom break and realized that we could use paper towels for origami. We found a table by the concessions and I showed Nisa how to make cranes. Nisa attempted to show me how to french braid my own hair but I got frustrated very fast! We were hungry by now so we ate our almond butter and apricot jam sandwiches to fill us up. By then it was 4:30 so we got a spot to watch the sun go down. Only 10 minutes after we had gotten a spot there were tons of people behind us with cameras, phones and GoPros ready for the sunset. When the sun was going down we got as many pictures as possible. 10 minutes and the sun was basically gone but while it lasted, it was beautiful!! We headed back and by the time we had gotten to the bus stop to go home it was dark. We had an amazing, fun, and beautiful day!