A beautiful 3km hike through the Tijuca National Park. Beautiful jungle, streams, waterfalls, even spotted a couple of monkeys. This was a moderate hike with quite a few challenges along the way (streams to cross, fallen trees to climb over, rocks to climb up, and down! I would have probably chickened out had I known in advance what they were, lol... But we did it! and loved it!

Pietro was an amazing guide. He knows all the great falls as he has been raised around this beautiful Forest which has all kinds of animals. We got to see 2 types of Monkey’s, I recall the name of the bigger one which is all black its called a “Prego” meaning a nail. Loads of Jackfruit which isn’t originally from Brazil. The Portuguese brought in lots of animals, plants, trees etc from Africa. I was very impressed as I had no idea and the Horto exists thanks to Dom Pedro Portuguese King with the influence of his wife Queen Isabel who convinced him Rio needed a forest if it would ever become anything. You’ll have to take a tour with Pietro to get the rest of the story……..it’s so worth it.

We were picked up on time. The tour is short and only goes from the parking lot via the tar road to the first waterfall. Walking time approx. 20 minutes. From then on you have to scramble a little - another 10 minutes - a head for heights would be good. You can swim at the following two waterfalls. Then it's back to the car. By our standards, this is not a hike. The description is misleading in this regard. Eduardo our guide was great. The tour was over after about 3 hours. The tour is great if you want to swim at the falls and/or take pictures. The tour does not meet the requirements if you want to do a guided hike with a route.