Day 5 - Hiking Tijuca National Forest

After making our way back down Corcovado, Alex took us into the Tijuca National Forest.  This is the largest urban forest in the world.  Immediately inside, we visited Cascatinha Taunay, a modest waterfall named for a French cartographer.  

Then he took us to Bom Retiro to begin our hike.  As we approached Bom Retiro, Alex explained that hiking to Tijuca Peak might not afford us the best views, so he offered a 2^nd option known as Parrot Beak Peak (in Portuguese: Bico do Papagaio).  The trail was harder to Parrot Beak Peak, but that didn’t stop Alex from making the suggestion (evidently he thought we were rugged enough to make the more difficult journey). The round trip journey was 4.6 km / 2.85 miles.
See footage from the hike and at the summit in this video (right) -------------------------------->

The trail took about an hour, but the final 300 yards were certainly the most challenging.  We literally climbed up the peak, using roots and imbedded iron handles to achieve our mission.  When we got to the top, we looked around and discovered we were smack-dab in the middle of a cloud.  We couldn’t see the sun nor could we see the ground below.  As a matter of fact visibility was about 50 feet.  I felt like we were just sitting in the sky on a rock with nothingness above and below us.  It was all very surreal.

The trip down was slightly harder, requiring us to step down backwards to descend the peak the first 300 yards back down.  From start to finish, we hiked for about two and a half hours.