When you think of Rio, apart from Barry Manilow’s (fantastic) “Copacabana”, you probably think of two things: Carnaval; and the statue of Christ the Redeemer. We’d done one of these last night; today it was the other big Rio attraction, as our final outing of our trip.
We packed our bags for the last time (“we’re so efficient at this!” said Kevin - I have to confess, I’m STILL congratulating myself about how we managed to go away for 4.5 weeks with only cabin bags); had breakfast (joined by some party goers only just coming home from last night’s Carnaval, still in their sparkly dresses at 10am - oh to be young again…); checked out; and left the bags at the hotel. The car I’d rearranged after Kevin was sick turned up, and off we went.
Our guide was Christian, a young Chilean who’d married a Brazilian, and ended up moving to Rio “for love”, as he said. His English wasn’t the best - no Carlos-style polemics today - but he knew what he was doing. He suggested taking the train up, so we did - a 30 minute funicular climbing steeply through the Tijuca National Park. There are so many things we didn’t get a chance to do in Rio, and explore this is one of them, it’s supposed to be beautiful - Christian said as it’s a green space in the centre of the city, it’s know as the lungs of Rio. (One aside - for the journey up, Jemima was wearing her fleece. This shows her acclimatisation - there is NO WAY she’d have done that when we’d first arrived in South America, she’d have been sweltering…)
It was busy at the top, as might be expected on a Sunday at the end of Carnaval - but this was another experience that was beyond expectations. For me, there were two parts to this.
First, it was the statue itself. Especially against a clear blue sky, it just looked beautiful: Christ the Redeemer indeed, with such a calm, compassionate expression, I found it surprisingly moving. (Christian told me his hands had been modelled on a woman’s, to give him that kindly feel.) It really is iconic - and you can see it all over Rio. (Apparently, if you’re really special - a famous footballer, for example, or Taylor Swift, you can go up the structure INSIDE the statue, built for conservators and caretakers, and pop out of either his shoulder, or the top of his head. As we are neither, we didn’t get this option…)
Second, was the view. Honestly, Rio has to be the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen (I can’t say in the world, as I’ve not seen them all, but if they can beat Rio I’d be surprised). Gorgeous green mountains, steep dark brown hills, lakes, sea, islands, and stunning golden beaches everywhere you look - apparently Rio has 90 beaches, and they’re all idyllic. (Something Carlos said yesterday: on the beach, everyone in Rio is the same, favela- or city-dweller. It’s clearly a huge part of Rio culture.) We could even see the Sambadrome from last night. Absolutely stunning.
And then, as an added bonus, it turned out Christian is a tour guide-wannabe-photographer - he’d said he knew the spots for the best pictures, and he wasn’t kidding. We did what we were told, and posed nicely (even Kevin and Jemima!), and the results were so successful he was getting requests from other tourists. Because there were lots and lots of tourists, all angling for the perfect shot.
But I was still moved to find that, as it was a Sunday, a priest was celebrating mass at the foot of the statue, in honour particularly of Our Lady of Aparecida (“the Appeared”), the black Virgin Mary and patron saint of Brazil, who had (according to Christian) been choice number two for the statue, after Princess Isabel of Portugal, but neither had ultimately been considered suitable, being too black, and/or too female. At least it’s her name on the Chapel, and she was there in statue form today, albeit at a MUCH smaller scale…
After a little prayer in her Chapel, it was time for the funicular down, a quick lunch at the hotel, and then an Uber to the airport. And that was it - barring the return journey, the adventure was over. But what an adventure it’s been…
The funicular train station:
Sunday mass at the foot of Christ with Our Lady of Aparecida:
Christian’s poses:
Views:
The Sambadrome (you can see the rectangular grandstands in the middle of the picture):
It was busy!:
Rio street:
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