One thought on “Climbing to the top of Christ the redeemer . 3 litres of water later at the top . Great views . Only a few people climb as the vast majority go up by rail . Recovered in the museum for naive art .”

1. Day 2: The beach

   We decided to chill on a beach following our long journey and the busy run up to the trip. We started our day by walking down the famous Selaron steps. In 1990 a local artist started scavenging brightly coloured broken tiles to decorate the concrete steps outside his house. Soon it became an obsession as the coloured steps spread further away from his home and people started donating tiles. Now all 215 steps and the walls surrounding them are covered with bright ceramic tiles representing places all over the world (including S Wales!)

   The biggest change in Rio I noticed since 2005 was the metro built for the 2012 Rio Olympics. It was clean, safe, cheap and very simple to use. Soon we were renting a beach umbrella on the baking Copacabana beach and Neil had his first swim in the southern Atlantic Ocean. We took it in turns to swim as we’d been warned about petty thieves, but we didn’t see anything threatening at all.

   We rounded up our lazy day by walking to Leme at the far end of the long busy beach. We found a bar tucked into the cliff edge and chose cool Brazilian beers to sip with our fresh seafood and watched the sun dip slowly behind the mountains.

   The beach was full of silhouettes of children running, swimming, playing football as their parents looked on. As the light faded, we watched 2 men swim out, gently pushing a tiny boat with little flags on it. After a while they let it drift away and swam back to their families on the beach. We supposed they were setting someone’s ashes adrift. It was so peaceful and a perfect way to say goodbye to a loved one.

   Day 3: The statue

   Since thousands of people catch buses or a funicular train up to see the huge iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer, we decided to walk up. After much searching, we found the unmarked path at the back of some lush gardens of an art college far below the statue. We slowly zigzagged our way up the jungle path in the clammy tropical heat. We drank fast and replenished our water containers from the waterfalls gushing down through the trees.

   There was only one tricky bit to climb where we had to hoist ourselves up over slippery granite rocks grabbing on to an old rusty chain and standing on some metal bars drilled deep into the rock. The views down were spectacular but my vertigo would not allow me to look until we were safely back on a path.

   The art decor statue was huge and impressive and surrounded by tourists. We felt they’d all cheated and that we were the only ones there who deserved the view. Our beers tasted far better than theirs!

   Back home, Neil joined our hosts’ two young children in the pool and taught them his favourite game Marco Polo. He was a great hit. We ended the day in a busy little restaurant in Santa Teresa.

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