Cars 20 Hotels 9 Flights 5:flying time 32.50 hours
Rickshaws 4 Buses 2 Elephant 1 Countries 2
Boat 1 Cog-wheel train 2 Cable cars 4
This morning I visited the statue of Christ the Redeemer. To get to the statue one had to get a cog-wheel train through the jungle, up the mountain.
It’s on top of Morro do Corcovado that I can see why Rio de Janeiro is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for Cultural landscape in 2012.
The statue is the largest art deco sculpture in the world, designed by Carlos Oswald and sculpted by Paul Landowski.
We had a brief stop at the place where the Rio carnival parade takes place, not on the city roads but in a specially built stadium. Carnival in Brazil is a serious business. There is a carnival league, with four divisions, the top division has 12 samba teams and each one has between 2 and 4 thousand people in the team. The top teams get to do a longer dance at the parade. My driver/ guide plays the drums in a first division samba team. The teams get judged each year at the carnival and can move up or down the league. There is also a small museum which has examples of some of the costumes.
Sugarloaf Mountain, named in the 16th century because blocks of sugar were moulded in conical clay pots to be transported in ships and the shape of these moulds was similar to the peak.
One has to go in two cable cars to get to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, the views are even more spectacular than those from the top of Corcovado. This shot shows Copacabana in the background and Red beach in the foreground.
The statue can just be seen in the background, looking over the city. Hundreds of boats speckle the harbour.
I liked this colourful art work on the hoardings at the top of Sugarloaf.
On the way back to the car we came across a farmers market, just packing up for the day, I do like a produce stall.
The beautiful trees lining the streets and one of my favourite colours on a house.
Finally a walk along the beach after supper I saw people fishing in the sea and they caught fish, and people playing volley ball.
