Sugarloaf Mountain

Guarding the entrance to Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf Mountain is Rio’s other great postcard: some 396 meters of granite and gneiss, a single block more than 600 million years old, next to Urca Hill.

The name comes from the conical clay molds used to crystallize sugar in colonial Brazil — the block that came out was called a “sugarloaf”. It was at the foot of the mountain, in Urca, that Estácio de Sá founded the city on March 1, 1565.

The cable car, conceived by engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos, began running on October 27, 1912, from Praia Vermelha to Urca Hill; the stretch to the summit opened in January 1913. It was Brazil’s first cable car — at the time there were only two others in the world.

The ride goes in two stages, and each stop has lookouts, cafés and short paths. From the top you see Copacabana, Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado, Niterói, the bridge and the boats crisscrossing the bay. Sunset is the busiest — and most beautiful — time.

Hikers can walk up to Urca Hill on the trail that starts at Pista Cláudio Coutinho and take the cable car to the top from there. On the way back, linger on the Urca seawall facing the bay.