| Sugarloaf Mountain | |
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| Elevation | 1,299 ft (396 m) |
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Sugarloaf Mountain
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| Location | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
Sugarloaf Mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar), is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.
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The mountain is only one of several monolithic morros of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-paneled cable car (in popular Portuguese, bondinho - more properly called teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Cara de Cão every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car goes from the base, not the peak of the Babilônia mountain, to the Urca mountain and then to the Pão de Açúcar mountain.
To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro de Açúcar, 220 meters high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar.[1] The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. Each car travels only three minutes from start to finish. Departures are available every 20 minutes between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm and the fare is US$11 for Morro de Açúcar or US$22 for the whole way to Pão de Açúcar.[2]
Visitors can watch rock climbers on Sugarloaf and the other two mountains in the area: Morro da Babilônia (Babylon Mountain), and Morro da Urca (Urca's Mountain). Together, they form one of the largest urban climbing areas in the world, with more than 270 routes, between 1 and 10 pitches long. Some routes on Sugarloaf are: