Pedra do Telegrafo
You have probably seen some daredevil photos of people hanging off the cliff, somewhere in Brasil. We saw them on instagram some months ago and ever since that moment, this location has been on our bucket list. It’s Pedra do Telegrafo, located 2-hour drive outside of Rio de Janaiero.
What makes it so special is the possibility to take some incredible pictures of people hanging off the rock with the stunning coastline in the background. All that located 300m asl so the abyss is deep and looks even more dramatic.
When we first saw a picture like that our knees started to shake. It looked so scary, after all!
Is it really dangerous and do you have to risk your life to pose on that „famous cliff”? Find out the answer below!
How to get there
You can get to Pedra do Telegrafo with a guided tour that will cost around 100 USD. You can also do it yourself and save about 97% of the price by going by public transport. Here’s how to do it, step by step, starting from the centre of Rio de Janeiro.
- From the town centre or the popular beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, you need to take the subway to the very last stop called: Jardim Oceânico. Get down and head towards the exit C, where you can easily get to the bus platform. Any kind of bus will be working for us at this point.
- Get down at Terminal Alvorado and look for a sign „semi-expres do Malto Alto”, this will be the next bus you need to take.
- After around 30 minutes, you will get to the Ilha de Guaratiba station. Get off the bus and walk down the ramp underneath the highway and look for a bus stop located to your left, just 50 meters away.
- The last part of the journey is to take the bus number 874 to Barra de Guaratiba. Get off at the last stop and you will find yourself right next to a stunning beach.
The whole journey took us 2 hours and for the round-trip we paid 15 real per person, using the RioCard. We also tracked our location with the help of the Maps.Me app which was helpful, as well.
The trek do the top
The kind local showed us the right path to start the trail towards the Pedra do Telegrafo. After some steep walk through the local town, we entered the forest. The trail is well marked with the yellow footprint sign along the way. The hike took us around 40 minutes and was fairly steep. It was hot and humid so we were sweaty only after the first few steps. The trail goes in the jungle with a bamboo forest part at some point and there are a couple of great views while making your way up the hill.
Daredevil pictures on the cliff
Once we got to the famous rock, there was already a line of people waiting for their turn to take pictures. People were hanging off the cliff, doing risky poses and sitting just on the edge of the rock-shelf. The views were spectacular and the scenery dramatic. You could hear the waves crushing 300 meters below! We took our time in the line to get inspired by watching people ideas, fun poses and couple shots! The photos came out perfectly!
No worries though! We are not crazy enough to risk our lives for a couple of „adrenaline” photos! In fact, anyboby can hike here and take exactly the same, thrilling photographs, high above the sea level, on a scary rock. It’s all safe! The magic cliff is, in fact, located around 1,70m above the ground and it’s all about the perspective and the right angle of the photo! So no stress needed. But the photos are very convincing if you take them right! That’s the whole idea of this place, isn’t it?
Start the hike early!
The place gets a bit crowded and you need to wait for some time before you can start your posing adventure, so we recommend getting up early and doing the hike as soon as possible. It’s good to have time to play with the perspective and take a chance to create the right poses. It may look easy, but hanging off this cliff for us was difficult. We could only manage to do this for a few seconds and all our muscles were shaking. That was enough for a perfect shots, luckily! Good luck guys!
Not so scary any more!