The remains of Carnival blanketed the area: paraders excavated themselves from costumes, watchers hurried home and floats were discarded just past the end of the Sambadrome – long stadium for the samba parades. We saw it all at 5am heading home for a gigantic sleep.
We were on the move by noon I’d say. For the next couple of days we toured around the centre. We walked just over 10 kms almost every day. So much to see as we wound our way near our hotel, including many places to relax with a beer.
The peak of our excursions was Christ the Redeemer statue. So many elbows and cameras all squeezing in for photos. Fun fact: the statue originally had a cross under one arm and a soccer ball under the other. Locals called him ball Christ. So the arms were reconfigured to be outstretched. We saw what looked like the welding on both.
We also saw graffiti, famous favelas where some movies have been filmed, Tijuca National Park and finally saw inside the Cathedral Metropolitan – we walked by it 5 or 6 times but not only was it closed, a locked metal fence surrounded it. Later we realized that many, many structures such as historical buildings, subway stations, churches and etc had same locked fencing – hooligan deterrents. Plus no shops were open until mid-week.
And then these famous stairs created by a local artist in the past 10 years. He received tile donations to make it happen. This spot was even busier than the Carnival revelers we bumped into on our first day. Clearly he liked red.
Finally we hopped the cable car at Sugar Loaf mountain. A famous James Bond scene was filmed here way back when. the cable car first opened in the 1930s and was state of the art. Below was that model. It was upgraded in the 1970s and again in 2008. Sunset view was amazing. Look for Christ the Redeemer all lit up.
Our last morning in the centre we visited a former mansion with a private, now public, collection of Brazilian (and other art). We grabbed an old tram back by the arches or previous aqua duct system. Now it just forms backgrounds for movies.
Ele's Travelling Adventures 