An early start this morning took us to Corcovado – the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer perched on the highest peak in Rio. It is an amazing sculpture and appears to be cement. Upon closer inspection, however, there are small tiles covering the entire statue that were placed by hand, all by women.
Next we were off to Sugarloaf Mountain and the cable car ride and incredible 360 degree views of the mountains, the sea, the beaches and the city. There is a trail that you can walk up to the first stage of Sugarloaf but we took the cable car. Small monkeys live in the trees and are a big hit with folks who enjoy feeding them.
We took a short stroll on Red Sand Beach near Sugarloaf before we embarked on the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana and lunch. We’ve all heard about these famous beaches all our lives, and the girl from Ipanema now lives in Sao Paulo! The beaches here go on forever and they are gorgeous. They draw thousands of locals every day. Brazilians must have their sun! No one would dare carry a chair or umbrella to the beach as there are numerous vendors who supply them. Volleyball, wind surfing, body surfing, surfing – every water sport imaginable.
We enjoyed a nice lunch at Le Coin II, a small café in Lebon that is frequented by the locals. The food was very good and portions were huge. After lunch we enjoyed walking in Lebon and sampled coconut water from a street vendor. Marcio tells us everyone here consumes it, it has zero calories, is high in potassium and is very refreshing.
Next we were off to Two Brothers Mountain Park for more spectacular views of the city and Samba City where they construct the floats used in Carnival. We took a factory tour and got to see the floats being constructed for Carnival 2009 that is coming up in about a month.
Lastly we were on our way to visit to a historic Baroque Church from the 16th century where the Monks chant and pray every day at 6:00 p.m.
Our Visit to Rio was brought to a close and we were pleased that we were able to take in as much of the city as possibly in 2 days. We enjoyed every aspect of our time here and thanked Marcio for the experience. We bid him goodbye with the hope we would see him again someday.
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