Rio, Day 2

March 1

In the taxi, on our way! 

Ida and I had an early start Saturday morning because we had booked tickets the day before to visit Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). Our tickets were for 8:40am. We took a taxi from her apartment complex to Mount Corcovado, where we were dropped off near the entrance. I presented my ticket voucher to the lady there and she handed us our two train tickets- that's right, we were taking a train to the top! It was only 8:05 or so when we arrived, so we passed the time by viewing the displays that were set up inside the small station.






After about 10 minutes of waiting there, I glanced at my ticket and noticed that the departure time was for 8:20 instead of our orginally scheduled time of 8:40. I pointed this out to Ida and we quickly hopped in line and boarded before the train left. Whew! That was a close-call.

The train ride was nice, scenic, and fairly steep at times. After arriving at the other station, there remained some steps to ascend, or the escalator, before reaching the statue of Christ. I chose the stairs, so Ida and I had a good leg workout. Haha. At the top stood the impressive statue, overlooking the city below. It was very cool seeing the monument in person after having seen it in so many different media outlets: movies, magazines, internet sites, and other sources that pertain to Brazil. The only blemish was the scaffolding there beside the statue. Lightning struck one of the hands recently during an electric storm: Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue damaged by lightning strike. Also when we arrived at the look-out point, one entire side was obscured by clouds, so we did not have a complete view of the city below. Many tourists were there, taking pictures with their arms spread open like the statue behind them. At first I was apprehensive to do this and imitate Christ like that. I didn't want to be disrespectful, offensive, sacrilegious, or something like that. However, after thinking it over and chatting with Jesus, I was pretty confident that He wouldn't mind it. I had no bad intentions in taking the picture, so I played the tourist role and followed suite. After an hour or so, we went down a set of stairs to visit the souvenir shop. We made our purchases and upon exiting the store, we discovered that the morning fog had finally lifted! We hurried back to the top and now had a panoramic view of Rio. Here's a short video clip I took: Cristo Redentor

Little known fact (or at least I didn't know before visiting) is that there is a small chapel under Christ the Redeemer. The entrance is located on the backside, but unfortunately it was closed during our visit.

On the way down the mountain, we were accompanied by a few superheroes and a guy in a Brazilian soccer jersey. Who knew that the Hulk, Ironman, and Captain America had a side gig as samba musicians? Ha. They each played an instrument and sang as we descended. It made for a lively return trip, and it was neat to see Ida singing the songs familiar to her. The group of guys were wearing costumes because of Carnaval. It is normal to see people dressed-up during this time of year, and I mean in all kinds of outfits! [You will see what I mean later ;-)] 
Samba Super Heroes

We arrived at the bottom and exited the entrance. We briefly visited a church across the street before catching the bus downtown.

Ida had planned for us to go see the Cordão de Bola Preta, a bloco (a type of informal parade and gathering in the streets where many people come out to celebrate, drink, spend time with friends, dress-up, etc.) There are many different blocos throughout Rio and other cities in Brazil around the time of Carnaval, however the one we were going to see was one of the oldest of the city.

Yes, that guy is wearing a diaper.

It was pretty wild walking through the crowd gathered in the city center. Brushing up against all those hot, sweaty people- of whom a good number were drinking- was something I wouldn't really care to do again. One time was sufficient for me. Haha. But there was definitely a festive atmosphere with the different street vendors, big trucks with speakers playing music, people on top of them calling out chants, and all the people singing and dancing out in the street. Bola Preto

As we were heading away from the epicenter of what some of my Brazilian friends refer to as a bagunça (disorder or confusion, basically a "big mess"), a man dressed as a woman passed by me and blew me a kiss. Uhhh- not quite sure how I was supposed to react to that, so I continued forward- at a quicker pace. Ha.


Due to the feriados (holidays), many places were closed for business. Ida and I were looking to grab lunch somewhere, and we found a place. So what restaurant would be open at this time, and most likely is always open, regardless of which day of the year it is? Can you guess? I'll give you a hint: it's a fast-food chain...that's right, we found those internationally recognized golden arches of Mickey D's. Haha.

I usually avoid McDonald's in the States, unless I'm craving their fruit & walnut salad or it's breakfast time and oatmeal is on the menu. It's a much different experience visiting familiar restaurant chains in other countries though, because of how their menus vary by local cuisine and tastes. For example, this Brazilian McDonald's had the option of different sucos (juices) served with their combos: uva, maricuja, and laranja (grape, passion fruit, and orange). For probably just the second time in my life I ate a Big Mac, and it was delicious. I had the grape juice and it was great.

Lapa

Teatro Municipal

Located near the restaurant were the Teatro Municipal (Municipial Theater) and Biblioteca Nacional (National Library), but they were both closed. After lunch we continued to the arcos da Lapa- what used to be a operating train track and reminded me a little of the Aquaduct I saw in Segovia, Spain this past summer. Ida and I continued to the Catedral de São Sebastião where we entered and rested a few minutes. The cathedral is constructed in the design of a big pyramid and had a neat interior with the stain-glass windows. I liked how the pews were situated to circle around the altar in the middle.

I took a few pictures and then we had to find a bus that traveled to the area of the city where Ida lived. This took some time, maybe half an hour or longer. As the buses rounded the corner, we would read their number and compare it with a list of bus numbers Ida had written down- these buses ran the route we were looking for. Just when we were about to try another means of transportation, I recognized the number of one of the approaching buses and signaled to the driver to stop. Yes! I waved down my first bus- I'll be a Brazilian before long. Haha. When we arrived back home, we were good and tired from our busy, sight-seeing day.