Needless to say we slept pretty well after all of yesterday’s excitement. Bizarrely today seemed almost tame in comparison! Even so , we were off to see one of the New Seven Wonders of the World…Christ the Redeemer.
This iconic symbol of Rio had already been seen of course, on yesterday’s helicopter ride but today we would be two of the ants crawling all around the base!
We were collected at 9am and joined the usual rush hour traffic as we headed through now familiar neighbourhoods of Copacabana, Leme, Botafogo, Flamengo, Lagoa and then into Tijuca. We were dropped at the bottom of the funicular railway which is the easiest way to get to the top of Corcovado. Today we had v strict instructions from Rachel not to be so British and to follow her exactly where and when she went. This basically meant that we casually pushed in the long queue to get on the train all the while adopting what she told us was ‘landscape face’. You know the one….where you pull that totally innocent , rather vague look, as if to say ‘who me?’. It worked a treat and we were soon on the train in the best seats!! Rachel explained that there was ‘no line’ here so it was all perfectly acceptable.
The ride up is very steep obviously and there are some amazing views both of the Tijuca forest itself and then views to the coast. The forest is lush and wild with huge tall trees and it made me wonder how on earth anyone ever started clearing it! Nowadays it’s not allowed for development to take place in the park but sometimes creep does take place from the favelas and there is not much anyone can do about it.
At the top we piled out and it was incredibly hot…maybe 31 degrees. Of course it’s a very busy spot and important to keep your hands on your belongings. However, although it felt too cosy at times everyone was being very patient and polite with each other.
Your main aim here is to get that Insta perfect photo but sadly it’s unlikely to happen because of the crowds. So we all pose with our arms up or out, hovering over a camera to make our hands join up even lying on the ground to get a better angle. It’s madness and when we look back through them later we look hot and sweaty and I’ve cut half of Jesus out with my hat!!
However, photos aside the place is incredible. They’re mending Jesus at the moment …which involves abseiling down him and replacing some of the thousands of soapstone mosaic pieces which cover the whole statue. It is a beautiful statue and the views below are yet again incredible.
The statue is 98 feet tall and the arm span is 92 feet. It was the winning design in a competition for a grand monument to celebrate Brazil’s independence and was inaugurated in 1931. It was designed by Brazilian Heitor da Silva Costa and inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s famous study of the human body.
On the way down in the funicular we made friends with Lakshmi and Stephania and made arrangements to meet up with them in Buenos Aires…their home city. We’d taken their photo earlier and now we were planning to meet up and eat steak and drink Malbec!!
Once back on the ground and in the cool air con of our car, a little extension to our tour was made so that we could see two of the other iconic beaches of Rio, Leblon and Ipanema. We stopped at a great viewpoint where the sea was an incredible milky blue and the Sheraton stood proud right in front of an enormous favela.
Rachel and Raphael dropped us of at the Garota da Ipanema where famously the duo of Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos Jobim were inspired, by a young girl in a bikini walking to the beach, to write the ‘Girl from Ipanema’ song. Here we enjoyed some cold beverages and some scrumptious Natas fresh out of the oven!
After this we walked back to our hotel on Copacabana. The beach of Ipanema was very very crowded. We started at Post 9 and had to get back to Post 5. These stations are way markers aswell as lifeguard stations and appear to have a hierarchy of status. On Ipanema the prime spot to put your towel is Post 9. On Copacabana they tend to indicate where different communities hang out so there are different areas for retired Carioca (people from Rio), footballers, fishermen, favella kids, gay people etc. It was very very hot but we made it to the end of Ipanema and then needed to cut through a park before rejoining the road along Copacabana. It was here that I felt rather uncomfortable for the first time…there weren’t many tourists and there were large groups of boys heading to the beach. Anyway we were fine as I was ready to Ninja pounce on anyone who looked at me slightly sideways. Yeeeeeehaaaaa!
Needless to say they were all too scared and we made it back to our hotel without hitch. It was here that Jane also point out that there were 4 police on horseback in the park so it was highly unlikely that anything would happen!
After a cooling dip in the hotel pool we headed off to dinner and stumbled into the fantastic beachside cafe called Tropik where we went Greek for the evening. It was lovely sitting watching beach life still going on into the warm evening. Very pleasant indeed.
Where shall we go to next? 
Such brilliant words and pictures 👌 xx
Aw thanks Amanda. It really was a fantastic day.