This is the Christ Statue and it sits atop the highest point in Rio. This place is considered by many to be holy ground and was quite busy. The view is truly amazing as you are at times above the clouds! From this point you can see downtown Rio, Copacabana and Ipanema. I personally liked Ipanema the best as it seemed to be a little more hip and less populated with street vendors and "working girls." I was there over the holidays and it is summer so the weather was awesome and 98 degrees everyday. The women really do wear "dental floss" bikinis, if they wear anything at all, and ALL the guys wear those little brief swim trunks. There are often free concerts on the beachs, such as the Stones a few months ago, which drew over 1.5 million people and over New Years they were estimating 1 million in Ipanema to see the Black Eyed Peas and 2 million in Copacabana for some Brazilian artists.
This is the the famous Copacabana sidewalks. It seems to just keep going on and on. One thing I kept seeing was these guys all wearing orange jumpsuits and picking up trash from the beach, sweeping the sidewalks, replacing tiles and just doing whatever to keep the place clean. But the wierdest thing was all the women were all over these guys! It turns out that these guys work for the Governor and have rare benefits such as healthcare, good salary and prestige. I found a lot of poverty in Rio, ghettos are called "flavellas" and they are quite abundant. There is no social security or medicaid so you see a lot of poor people. I definitely recommend learning some Portuguese as not everyone speaks English. There are over 175 million people in Brazil, the 5th largest country in the world. I met so many people from every corner of Brazil and it reminded me very much my travels throughout the US.
This is the Christ Statue from Sugar Loaf, which is this two stage gondola ride to another view of the surrounding areas. There was a famous James Bond scene where he was fighting "Jaws" as the gondola rose. I think the movie was Moonraker, but not positive. As I rode up I wondered how someone thought about spending a lot of money, a long time ago, just to ride up another mountain. And who climbed up there and found that it was a beautiful view? Just like all of you....so many more questions...
This is Ipanema and it a beautiful sight. The surfing is quite good here and board rentals can be found for around $15. Hang gliding is around $65 but I didn't have the time as it takes a full day. I found the best restaurants in Ipanema (Mios, Sr. Pierre are pretty good) to be more relaxed and better than anywhere else. If you're lucky you'll get to see a group of guys doing this martial arts dance/fight moves in the street.
Well, that's enough for now. If you are thinking about going to Brazil give me a call as I have much more info that will be beneficial. In fact, you may have noticed that I don't have any pictures of random people, there is a large "Brazilian mafia" down there and they will attack you if you take their picture. At the least they will take your camera, but much worse is more common.
I wish you all the best and hope to see some of you sometime soon.
Cheers!
