Scott and I were up and at them at a reasonable hour this morning. We hit breakfast a little after 10 and then went hoop hunting. As regular readers know I normally enjoy exploring a city by foot or bike to find hoops. It allows me to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of a place. In Rio I was worried about the safety element, so I decided to do some internet research. I located a hoop that had a chance of including a view of the Cristo.
I decided today I wanted to save time and pay up to take a cab to the hoop hunting area. The concierge estimated that it would cost 20ish Reals and it was worth $10 to me to save what probably would turn into an hours worth of time going by public transport. In front of the hotel there happened to be a taxi with British flag decals in the window. I assumed this meant the cabbie spoke English. Fortunately I was correct. Luiz’s English wan’t perfect but it was pretty darn decent. On the ride to the hoop we heard all about his daughter who married a finance guy from Pittsburgh. She has two very cute sons (he gave us pictures to look at) and the family lives in Denver. Later in the ride we learned he also has another daughter that lives in London.
As we approached the location of the first hoop, I quickly realized this court was going to be on lockdown. Since Luiz spoke such good English I decided to ask him if he would park the car, leave the meter running and join us on our adventure. I told him I wanted to take a picture with a basketball hoop and I needed him to ask the guards in Portuguese if they would allow us inside to do it. He agreed and I was very happy about it. We parked and proceeded to the first entrance. He asked this guard if we could go inside. He said we would have to ask the next set of guards. These guards seemed amused and happily let us inside. It turned out I wanted inside a military officers club. To this end I am extra happy that we had Luiz to ask for us as opposed to resorting to climbing fences.
We wondered through the club and after a few wrong turns found the hoops. It was a great shot. The lighting wasn’t ideal because it was a little later in the day than I had hoped it would be but I was still quite excited with the stop. On the way back to the gate I gave Luiz more details on what I was doing, explaining I was making a book and had pictures with the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Taipei 101, etc and a basketball hoop and that I wanted one with the Cristo. When we walked back through the entrance I could tell he explained more of this to the guards because he said “Eiffel Tower”. They all smiled and seemed to like the idea and that they had helped. It was either that or they thought I was crazy. Either one works for me. I got my shot and I’m very happy about it.
After this Luiz drove us to the entrance for the Cristo. I thanked him again and paid him 30 Reals. This meant our mini-guided tour cab ride to the Cristo only cost me $20 more than public transport would have. It’s entirely possible that is the best $20 I’ve ever spent.
Yesterday during our trek through the favela Michael and Oscar told us that it was worth paying a little more money to ride in vans up to the Cristo than waiting to ride the train. The train evidently didn’t offer that great of views and the line was known to take forever. We arrived at the ticket kiosk at 2 PM and if we wanted to ride the train our car wouldn’t depart until 4:40 PM. We took the vans.
There is one van transfer involved in the middle of the ascent up the mountain. I’m not really sure what the purpose of this is but my best guess is that it allows more people on the dole and companies on the take. Most things in Brazil seem to be run in as inefficient way as possible and this seems to be just another example.
The Cristo Redentor as they say in Rio was a site to behold. It really is a beautiful monument. Scott and I were both surprised at how clean the sandstone appeared. A sign said the statue which was finished in 1931 (they started it in 1922) had been renovated in 2010. Two years after its most recent renovation it was still looking quite good.
The top of the monument was certainly crowded. Everything I read prior to the trip said it would be. I don’t know if there is ever a slow day at this particular attraction. That being said Scott and I managed to get a few nice pictures and feel like we completely saw the site.
The views, like most other places we’ve been in Rio, were beautiful. Scott and I still think that Sugar Loaf had our favorite vistas but it is possible that’s simply because we saw those first and it seemed novel at the time. Something I didn’t anticipate was that there was a mini chapel inside the base of the Cristo. Many were peacefully sitting inside saying a prayer. I’m pleased to say that I can now mark visiting Christ the Redeemer off of my bucket list.
We decided to take the bus back to our hotel. It, like pretty much all other busses we rode, was ridiculously packed. The picture below shows a typical line to load a bus. One thing that surprised me about the bus system in Rio was that people didn’t seem to honor normal rules of seat etiquette. For example, on one of the rides a woman who had to be at least 8 months pregnant was never offered a seat by any of the myriad younger guys who were sitting down. I would have given her my seat but I was already standing.
We made it back to the hotel around 5 PM. I spent the early evening blogging by the pool while Scott worked out. At 9 PM we went to a very fun Thai place called Nom Thai. Our concierge told us we couldn’t get a reservation but that we could try stopping by the restaurant. Fortunately when we arrived there were still two available tables. We were quickly seated and enjoyed a leisurely meal with great conversation in a super fun environment. When we finished eating at 10:30 PM there was a long line of people waiting to be seated.
At dinner Scott informed me that he had some more friends he wanted to go out and meet. I told him I was game for it but regardless of when we got to bed, he had to hold up his end of the bargain to get up with me and go hoop hunting in the morning. He agreed to my terms and made plans to meet his friends 11:30 PM. This left us an hour to kill. We chose to walk the beach, burn off part of dinner and make room for whatever was next.
We didn’t end up eating with Scott’s friends but rather just chatting with the guys in front of a cafe for 45 minutes or so. Two of the fellows were locals, one was a New Yorker (Joe) working as an ambassador at the US Embassy and another was a Brazilian who is currently living in Austin (Tiago).
Scott and I made it back to the Sheraton a shade after 1 AM. I’ve now written this and the clock is creeping toward 2:30 AM. I need to grab a few hours while I still have a chance before the alarm rings for hoop hunting!
Until tomorrow,
Katy
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