Corcovada ..................... enough said!
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2007
1
49
92
Trip End
Dec 27, 2007
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Monday, October 8, 2007
Our room was called "Lapa" and that should have warned us, as Lapa is the night club district!
Our room was in a corner with the pool room on our left, some toilets on our right and the bar down the passage. We were assured the pool room was closed and locked up at 11pm and that the bar door kept out most of the noise.
Funnily enough the bar was great. The problem was first the pool room and then the toilets. A group of about 8 Irish lads were in the hostel and behaved like absolute pigs most of the time. They played pool until at least 2am, shouting and singing disgusting songs most of the time. However, that was still not so bad ....... the highlight of our early morning was listening to an Irish guy on the loo, with his mates standing outside the toilet (and next to our door) egging him on to making the most disgusting sounds as he struggled with a bad "curry" stomach! Besides egging him on they were then all describing their "best" toilet moments.
Thankfully they all passed out sometime around 3am!
We had breakfast at 10am, and managed to start smiling as the breakfast was great
Christ the redeemer, from down below
. A huge chunk of pineapple and watermelon, fresh juice, bananas, ham and cheese toastie and bread rolls with Dulce deleche or jam. We enjoyed the breakfast at Mellow Yellow everyday we were there, and always took a couple of Dulce deleche rolls for lunch.Dulche deleche is caramel. South Americans have heaps of it available at all times. Our favourite was to make a Dulce d roll and then put a banana into the roll for lunch ........ mmmmmmmm!
We had a chat with reception and they moved us to a very nice room called Copacabana. The rest of our stay in this room was brilliant and we slept well from then on, although I did miss my night time toilet fables ....... not!
We used the metro and went to the Urania street market. We had a ball wondering through the stalls. Jules found a bead necklace and I got some baggies for the beach. We spent ages and ages looking for a costume for Jules.
Basically a Brazilian costume consists of nipple caps on string and a piece of tiny material that goes between the legs!
Jules looked for hours (it seemed to me) before finding the biggest bikini in the market - however the biggest bikini in the market was tiny by our standards. The bikini bottoms were so small that Jules decided it was best to get a pair of those costume shorts, for when she decided to go into the water. It seemed that buying a Brazilian bikini did not necessarily give you the Brazilian courage of walking along the beach wearing almost nothing!
After finishing our business in the market we made it back to Mellow Yellow and jumped upon the bus going to Corcovado
Close up of Corcovado
. The hostel organises different trips and this was one to see the Christ the Redeemer statue at sunset. We wound our way up the hill through the Tijuca Forest National Park and stopped on the first level which overlooks the city of Rio.It was a magnificent sight and we took photographs of Copacabana, Ipanema, the football stadium, etc. In the distance behind us we could see Corcovado and we were excited to get up there and see the famous statue.
We took another 20 minutes to drive up and then get an escalator to the top of the hill. And then we were below the statue .................... awesome does not describe the feeling. The Redeemer statue stands 39.6 metres high and ways 700 tonnes, standing 2996 metres above the ground, overlooking the city.
It is immense and we spent a lot of time just staring and contemplating life. We took many photographs and then left very satisfied that we had seen one of the things we had set down as a "must do", and that it had been very worthwhile.
The history of Corcovado is as follows (as per Wikipedia):
"The archdiocese (of Rio) organized an event called Semana do Monumento ("Monument Week") to attract donations. The donations came mostly from Brazilian Catholics. The designs considered for the "Statue of the Christ" included a representation of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands, and a pedestal symbolizing the world.
The statue of Christ the Redeemer with open arms was chosen.
Local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa designed the statue; it was sculpted by Paul Landowski, French monument sculptor of Polish origin
Copocabana beach in teh distance
. A group of engineers and technicians studied Landowski's submissions and the decision was made to build the structure out of reinforced concrete (designed by Albert Caquot) instead of steel, more suitable for the cross-shaped statue. The outer layers are soapstone, chosen for its enduring qualities and ease of use. Stone for the monument was taken from Limhamn, in Malmö, Sweden. Construction lasted five years - from 1926 to 1931 and the monument was opened on October 12, 1931. The cost of the monument was $250,000.
In October 2006, on the statue's 75th anniversary, Archbishop of Rio Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid consecrated a chapel (named for the patron saint of Brazil - Nossa Senhora Aparecida) under the statue. This allows Catholics to hold baptisms and weddings there.
As of 7 July 2007, Christ the Redeemer was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a list compiled by the Swiss-based The New Open World Corporation."
