I got invited to spend a day hiking up another mountain in the wilderness of Tijuca Forest. This time, again guided by @alexandrefeliz, was a higher difficulty of hike. The path he took me on was less well known, and we parked at what seemed like a secret spot at the end of a dead end road in a really fancy neighborhood.
It was an official path because there was a sign with a map on it showing us where the path went.
The entrance to the path looked like this:
Feliz specializes in spotting animals and making sure the people who he guides on these hikes can experience seeing the animals in the forest they wouldnt normally see.
The sun was hidden behind a shroud of light gray clouds that blanketed the whole sky. I wasnt sure if this weather was going to pass or get worse.
We continued deeper into the wilderness.
Early on the hike we saw a small tree snake. When we tried to get closer the snake climed up the tree so fast we lost sight of it, unable to get a good photo.
This flower though, was not able to escape my photographic reflexes.
The path was steep, narrow and rocky. The path was well traveled though so the rocks gave an impression of man-made steps.
There was an uprooted tree that exposed the layers of ground sediment. I thought it looked cool. I didnt know that we were going to see some waterfalls quite soon after.
This small stream of water was making a waterfall down some sets of huge boulders. One of the mountains in Rio, the one with the Face on it, is the largest single-Rock mountain in the world.
At this point I complained about the mosquitos biting my ankles. feliz said I had some bug bites on my arms and took a picture and iw as shocked by how much i had been bitten. the brazilian mosquitoes are smaller in size than the ones in the US but their poison is gnarlier. They itch like fuck. Feliz worse long sleeve long pants I wore a muscle shirt and shorts haha.
There was a giant jackfruit sitting on the ground on the path. Feliz said that jackfruits are invasive and actually shorten the lifespan of the monkeys that live in the woods by almost half. They arn't supposed to eat the jackfruit and they do not know it is unhealthy for them.
We saw some kind of structure through the trees that was way off the path and went towards it. It ended up being some kind of water processing facility from a long time ago. It had graffiti all over it and made me want to turn it into a fort.
I spotted one of these spiky trees. A very unique bark on these, the spikes are so perfect, they look almost like a cartoon version of a spiked bark tree, if there was one.
The tree is a relative of the Acai palm, but I forgot what its called. Apparently though, these trees were what jumpstarted Brazils economy back in the day because the tree's wood is really hard. It was used to build ships. I wonder if they could farm this tree and use the wood to make skateboards.

We really were surprised how many animals and birds we did not see, but that had to be because of the weather. the animals must have known it was going to rain. We did see some monkeys playing in the canopy when we stopped to take a dip in the waterfall.
The trail kept going it got steeper as we went. straight trails that went back and forth along the side of the hill, bringing us up to the top.
We stumbled upon this huge tree trunk. the tree had died but the trunk was there. i went up to it and patted it. it was hollow and made a sound like a drum kind of.
There was a little scenic outlook that was inspiring but Feliz said we were only halfway to the top
The final stretch was alongside the trolly that brings less-hardcore hikers up to the christ. The photo doesn't show it, but it was super steep, i was surprised this kind of mechanic has been in operation for about 100 years.
Wet, and kind of cold...

A giant statue of Jesus Christ crowned the top of this mountain. The people of Rio don't visit this. I don't even think @xvlad has ever been here and he grew up in Rio lol. It cost $30 USD to enter the gates at the top which I thought was kind of a lot. Preying on tourists, the site is actually privately owned, Feliz said. He is a professional tour guide so he got free stuff from the concessions stand, and was allowed to enter for free.
I was kinda bummed that I wasn't going to be able to even get a good picture of The Christ. I think Christ heard me because suddenly the fog cleared for a moment or two and I was able to get a picture of his representation, on the top of this giant mountain that I trekked so hard to get to.
I leave you with this video edit of the clips @alexandrefeliz shot on his 360 camera and his phone.