It’s rainy season in Rio de Janeiro, which means it’s often cloudy, which means that the otherwise incredible vistas from the city’s clifftops and mountains are blocked by a thick white haze of rainclouds, which means that a long and steep hike often ends in a view like this:
That’s my Brazilian buddy Andre atop a few high points in Tijuca tropical rainforest during some very wet hikes in November.
There are some days when you can climb above the clouds, like one afternoon when I hike-climbed up Pão de Açucar:
Sometimes, even in rainy season, Rio gets a clear and sunny weekend with grand, sweeping views of this beautifully mountainous coastal city. This past Saturday, Andre and I hiked up Pedra da Gavea, one of the world’s tallest mountains ending directly in the ocean, which afforded views like this:
As a bonus, we also got to witness some BASE jumpers plunging from the top of Pedra da Gavea. BASE is an acronym for buildings, antennas, spans and earth, and in this case the “earth” was a jumping point just below the 2,769-foot peak. BASE jumping has a very high mortality rate — around 43.17 deaths in 100,000 people, compared to less than 1 death in 100,000 people for skydiving.
That said, here’s a video of Fernando Brito and Gabriel Lott taking the leap:
UPDATE: In June 2016, Fernando Brito died during a BASE jumping incident. Here’s a video by local TV station Globo about his amazing feats in a wingsuit.
