Today was another slow start to the day but we didn´t have much planned for today. A quick tour around the city and a visit to Christ the Redeemer statue all for R$55.
Andre was our guide and Animal was our driver. Our first stop was somewhere we have already been, the Maracana stadium. However, the stadium was closed for a private match so we did not get to go inside but we weren´t too bothered because we´d sampled it first hand the previous night!
Second stop on the tour was the Carnival street. This is just a 1.2km stretch of road that the Carnival goes through every year. On the left side are huge stands where the people pay about R$50 to watch the parade. On the right side are the corporate boxes where you get 5 star treatment for 5 days for the hefty price of R$100,000. People spend so much on them that they actually stay the night in the box!
Third stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral!
The final and most impressive stop was O Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer. The statue stands over 38m tall and took nine years to build back in 1922. However, the most impressive feature of the statue is its location. It is situated on top of the Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park. The view is about 700m above Rio and you can see all sides of the city from Ipanema to Centro. The weather up there was perfect and the views were amazing. The sun began to set while we were up there and it was the perfect way to end our sight seeing in Rio. We took some pictures and raced down the steps to the bus to head back to the hostel.
The Corcovado mountain is one of the laziest in the world. You can get to the top of the mountain by car and then get an escalator all the way to the statue. Laziness!
We headed back to the hostel, meeting some girls from Westport who got to the top of the mountain for R$25 but didn´t have any money to get back down so they hopped into our bus for the lift! We bought some pizza and beer and chilled in the hostel for the rest of the night.
Charlie
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