Breakfast

After breakfast get to your local fruit stand/grocery store and buy one mango, one caju fruit and one fruta do conde, (we’ll explain).

Trem do Corcovado

Get a cab to the Trem do Corcovado, so you can take the train along a eye-opening track up to the statue. Rua do Cosme Velho 513, 8:30am to 18:30pm).
The taxi driver will try to tell you he can drive you up to the statue for X reais, but it is not the same as the train experience. Once at the base of the Corcovado train, be sure to check out Zerrener’s (our contributing photographer) photo store while waiting for the next departure.

Christ Statue

Once up there check out the view, shoot photos, have a morning beer, hang out for an hour, then head back down.

Santa Teresa

Cab to “Largo do Guimarães” in Santa Teresa. There you can catch a trolley heading towards Lapa. This tram runs through St. Teresa, a turn-of-the-century neighborhood filled with cute little houses in the traditional Portuguese post-colonial style.

Lunch

Get off the tram at Largo do Guimarães (ask somebody) and sit for lunch at any of these places, whichever may be open: Sobrenatural, Bar do Mineiro, Simplesmente, Bar do Arnaudo. They all carry typical Brazilian dishes at fair prices.

Largo da Carioca

Hop back on the tram and get off at the last stop. Ask around for Largo da Carioca.
There you will find a nice bouquet of Brazilian wildlife: kiosks selling everything infringing on copyrights, fire-eaters, and circus freaks, etc. After checking the human zoo, head over to the Church Sao Francisco da Penitencia, one of Brazil’s most beautiful Baroque churches.

Happy Hour

You can then, as a reward, head over to Lapa and sit down at Beco do Rato for a dozen cold ones.