Cristo and samba

Friday morning we woke up and headed to Corcovado, which is in Floresta da Tijuca, a rainforest inside the city. From there we took the train 2,330 feet above sea level to the Christ the Redeemer statue. It was recently named one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It is almost 100 feet tall and weighs over 1000 tons.

From the top, which is more than twice as high as Sugar Loaf, you can see the entire city. In fact, the mountain is so high that many times the statue is in the clouds.

Chris loved it. Lelaine, well, not so much. Her fear of heights kicked in and when Chris met her at the top - he took the stairs from the train while Lelaine took a couple elevators and escalators with the old folks - he was instructed by a tearful Lelaine to "hurry up, take the pictures, and lets go back down."




We took a cab back to the hotel, put on our beach gear, and walked to Arpoador beach, a favorite among surfers, and then Ipanema, the beach of the beautiful people. When Chris first looked at going to Rio, he read a lot of opinions on why high-class Ipanema is supposedly better than seedy Copacabana. After seeing it he definitely agreed that the streets are nicer in Ipanema, but on the beach the views of the surroundings, geological not bikinis, are superior in Copacabana (although Ipanema is nothing to shake a stick at).


After exploring Ipanema we returned to Copacabana. Part of the reason was the Chris's stomach had had better days. The source was likely either the caipirinha he bought off of a street vendor who didn't use filtered ice or something from Porcao the night before, but whatever it was, his stomach was rumbling. None of the pharmacists at the five places Chris visited spoke English and he was having a hard time getting across what he needed. Luckily one very helpful man recognized Pepto Bismol as a universal language and helped him track down something similar. Chris felt a little better when they guy then went the extra mile to ensure that this is what he needed by making an A+ charades effort by using his body to get across "diarrhea."

Then it was time for a little more beach action. There were a lot of kids on the beach and Chris watched them play soccer while Lelaine scored some more cheese on a stick. Chris then decided to ignore the big red signs that in hindsight might have read something to the affect of "Don't swim. Strong Current" in Portuguese and tried some body surfing because the waves were big that day. When the first wave he tried flipped him twice he immediately had images of the Brady Bunch episode when Greg goes surfing in Hawaii and hits a coral reef. Luckily it was a sand bottom, but when a wave drags you across sand, it still leaves a pretty big mark across your chest.


That night we washed up and headed to Lapa, a neighborhood near downtown that is packed with samba bars. Chris has read a couple of articles about a particularly famous one and we reserved a table. We had a great time and certainly understood why it has been named one of the ten best bars in the world. It is a three story bar/antique store. Two different bands played and by the time we left it was so busy that you could barely move. Lelaine loved the fact that unlike in the US, almost everyone was actually dancing, even if it was just at their own table. Chris had enough caipirinhas that he even said he would dance, something that happens about once every two years, but there wasn't much room so we couldn't. Unfortunately Lapa isn't the safest of all neighborhoods and tourists are advised to take a cab directly to their club and when immediately get in a cab when exiting, so we couldn't really walk around, but it looked like everyone was having fun.



Fun Rio fact: the filtered ice safe for tourists to drink has a hole that runs through the middle. It is apparently important to check to make sure that your ice has holes in it before downing that caipirinha.