Day 68 : Corcovado & Cristo Redentor

Yay!  The sun is out!!!  There were still a fair bit of clouds in the sky, but at least it is no longer gloomy! 

Not knowing what the weather may be like the next day, I decided not to take my chance and head over to Corcovado – a definite must see sight when one is in Rio. 

So I got in touch with Aliang, a Singaporean friend I got to know in Rio 2 days ago, and arrange to meet at the foot of the hill at 11am.   

When we got there, there was already a long queue waiting to get their tickets.  It was about a half an hour wait before reaching the counters to purchase the tram and entrance tickets for Corcovado, and an additional one hour wait to board the tram (you will be auto-scheduled on a tram upon purchasing of ticket and ours was scheduled for 12.40pm). 

The tram ride to the top of the hill took us about 20 mins.  We quickly made our way up an elevator and a flight of escalator and were immediately awed by the gigantic presence of the back view of Cristo Redentor.

We walked around the monument and found troughs of people at the site, either posing or snapping photos in front of the Cristo Redentor statue, or just enjoying the magnificent and breath taking view of Rio de Janeiro from the top. 

While there, we met a really friendly security guard who spoke really good English and gave us suggestions on the best angle to take a picture with the statue. 

A few guys also started doing capoeira right in front of the monument at one point, which drew and impressive number of audiences.

Both Aliang and I must have stayed at the monument for about 2 hours, snapping away and posing in different poses in front of Cristo Redentor.  It was much longer than what we had planned to stay as we were waiting for the clouds to pass to capture some nice blue sky in our pictures. 

Nevertheless we took the opportunity to truly enjoy the view of the city, and identify the various landmarks of Rio de Janeiro from above.