Running in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Tijuca National Park

After yesterday's great urban 20-mile long run around the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, I was very much looking forward to finding my way to the jungle and tropical/rain forest of this National Park, right in the middle of this huge city.

From my hotel area at the junction of Ipanema and Copacabana, I ran back to the Lagoon which I circled on the west side this time. I actually missed the road you need to take, R. General Garzon. If you are visiting Rio and up for this run, you can find this short but large avenue in front of the Piraque island which hosts the Naval Club.

The avenue goes both sides of a canal getting the water of the tropical forest into the lagoon:

After R. General Garzon, you keep straight on R. Pacheco Leao, along the Botanic Garden (Jardim Botanico). If you see mountain bikers riding along this road, you are on the right way as the park is a favorite destination for cyclists!

Make sure to turn right at this sign:

And then get prepared for 3 miles of a good/steep uphill!

While I found several sites talking about trails in the Park (English, Portugese, Jungle Me guided tours) but couldn't spot them, I stayed on the road which, fortunately, had very few cars on, this Sunday morning.

After you enter the park (restrooms on the right),

you first pass a water fall

then reach the Vista Chinesa belvedere

from which you get an amazing view of the city (especially when it's not as cloudy as it was this weekend...), from Corcovado on the left:

to Barra de Tijuca on the right:

The road keeps going up for another kilometer or so, then goes down for 3 miles to the entrance at the other end of the Park.

A few more pictures in my Picasa album, including a few shots from my visit of the famous Sugar Loaf, unfortunately mostly in the cloud this Sunday...

One more reason I was happy to have woken up early and captured other views of the city from Tijuca, definitely a park to visit and run into if you happen to be in town!

Running in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon

If you stay in Rio de Janeiro, chance is that you will pick a hotel near the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, in the South part of this large city (6 millions in the city and about 13.5 in the metropolitan area). Rio has been the capital of Brazil for 2 centuries but lost this status to Brasilia in 1960 when this new city was built in a more central location for this large country (5th largest area after Russia, Antarctica, Canada, United States and China).

Anyway, a few hours after landing, I went for a run, I didn't want to go too far before getting acquainted with the city (you hear so much about the bad reputation of "the favellas" but, meaning neighborhoods, there are favellas everywhere on the map and not all are bad fortunately!).

The taxi driver showed me the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon on our way to the hotel and that seemed like a great place to run. Here is a view of some of the many hills of Rio, and the lagoon, from Tijuca National Park (see my next post...):

At least I could see from the car a bike path on one side and was excited to find out if it went all around. Indeed, it does and for quite a distance, much more than what I expected. The distance is marked every 200 meters (1/8th of a mile) and, as I was running, I started to see the number going up, and up, and...

The whole lap is just short of 7,500 meters (4.6 miles). I did the first one at 6:31 min/mile, a pace I was able to maintain for 20 miles thanks to the excitement of catching up with some slower bikers and skaters!

On weekends the bike path gets very busy with many walkers, joggers, runners, bikers, rollerbladers, skaters, quadricyclists and it requires quite some attention to slalom between people going at very different speeds. The same skills required to drive in Brazil anyway! ;-)

When it's not too cloudy, there are great views of the statue of Christ the Redeemer at the top of the Corcovado mountain, as well as closer hills such as the Morro do Cantagalo, Morros dos Cabritos and the nearby National Park of Tijuca.

While I didn't spot any public restrooms, there are many booths selling fresh coconut juice which is one of the best natural electrolyte. These represent convenient aid stations to remain hydrated!

Overall, a great/perfect urban course for a flat and fast long run!

As an alternative, especially if you are staying in Copacabana, you can run along the beach, on the bike path. There is also a bike path along the beaches of Ipanema (below) and Leblon which get quite busy on weekends too.

And, if you can't make it to Rio this time, feel free to continue the virtual visit in my Picasa album!