I’ve been excited about this little excursion since I arrived in Rio but had to postpone it due to my epic spider bite. A few days later my anticipation is so high that I’m a little giddy despite the fact that it’s raining. I suppose it fitting that it’s raining on rainforest day!
I’ve never been to a rainforest so I had visions of Jurassic Park sized foliage and exotic animals appearing just for my viewing, you know, like a zoo! And while the foliage part is certainly true, the animals are not on command. Let me introduce you to Tijuca National Park!
Tijuca is the most frequented rainforest in the world. Why? Because it’s inside of a major metropolitan area. Think of it like the Central Park of Rio, only it’s not! Central Park in New York City is iconic, beautiful and a joy to visit, but it’s no Tijuca! Tijuca is a thick, lush rainforest complete with miles of trails, waterfalls, exotic animals and lookouts over the entire city of Rio.
Tijuca’s history is colored by commerce. When the Portuguese came to this region in the 16th century they quickly recognized the value of this land for coffee and tea production. Much of this land was stripped and coffee beans were planted. It impacted the water & air quality as well as the general temperature of the city of Rio to such an extent that the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II ordered its replanting in the 19th century. The replanting was carried out by Major Gomez via African slaves. 10 slaves to be exact. They replanted over 100,000 plants. In fact, there are little red flowers in park that are African in origin. How did they get there? Via the slave’s feet. No, the slaves did not plant them…the seeds where embedded in their feet from home and seeded the park.
200 years later, it’s a thriving beautiful rainforest but only 8% of the forest is the original foliage. The regrowth has improved water and air quality and decreased Rio’s temperature by 2 degrees. Oh, and the fragrance, did I mention the fragrance? I noticed this sweet smell while walking to my car at the airport and at least one time I day it would be notable. The source of the fragrance is Tijuca from a variety of trees and plants, most notably eucalyptus.
One of my favorite spots within the forest is the Chinese lookout. It was built by the Emperor of Brazil in honor of China’s assistance in establishing tea growth in the region. In my opinion, it’s the best look out in the entire city. You can see everything from this lookout including Christ, Sugarloaf, the city and the ocean.
Coming to the end of our tour and I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see any sloths, toucans or monkeys. We were literally driving out of the park when we see one little monkey on the side of the road. I tossed him some peanuts and another emerged but we could count no less than 5 other monkeys in trees behind them. The perfect finish to the day!
Little Factoid: While coffee is no longer produced in the Rio area Brazil is still the number 1 coffee exporter in the world. That surprised me! Vietnam #2 and Columbia #3.
Next up…New Years Eve in Rio!