Day 5 - Rio de Janeiro

Today we used a guide to get us around Rio. Our thanks to Leticia Levy for being such a great tour guide and a very informative day. It was only after we'd finished the day did we realise we would not have been able to do it on our own.

Incidentally Rio de Janeiro was named because the explorers though they'd found a river not a harbour, and they came across it in January.

First stop was the Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redemptor), and art deco statue erected in 1931. It sits on Corcovado, 800m above sea level.

Needless to say the view from there is fantastic with views of downtown, Sugarloaf, and the Lake. Sugarloaf is the high point in the photo below. Why it was named Sugarloaf is not certain.

I'm glad we arranged for the guide as we saw parts of Rio we wouldn't normally have seen. Its such a diverse city and the mountains that the city has built around make for outstanding backdrops. The reputation for crime and theft is largely unwarranted and possibly is simply warnings taken out of context and blown out of proportion.

The Downtown area [pictured right] boasts a bridge that is 14 kilometres long.

After Christo we travelled through the area of Santa Theresa and eventually then to Downtown where we saw 3 very different churches, the very modern Cathedral [pictured], Candelaria - the original church in Rio, and then the Monastry of Sao Bento.

Next stop was the purpose built strip used for Carnivale which is essentially a dance competition for all the samba schools in Rio. Because the government thought it a waste to have this area used only once a year, the designers planned it so it could be used  as a school for the remainder of the time. You can see the school windows (the slats) on the left of the picture.

After there we visited the western side of the city, Ipanema beach, then onto Sugarloaf which is 400m above sea level and reached only by cable car. The cable car was used in the Bond film Moonraker. From Sugarloaf you can see Copacabana Beach (the upper beach in the picture) as well.