Saturday, November 24, 2007
The Big Guy
Rio de Janeiro has two emblems. One is Sugarloaf mountain (see last Saturday's post), and the other is Cristo Redentor, the massive 125-foot Jesus statue perched on Rio's highest peak, Corcovado, which means 'hunchback' in Portuguese. I have my own nickname for this statue: I call him 'The Big Guy.' As with Sugarloaf, fate handed us a cloudy, low-visibility day. Undaunted, we sallied forth and seized the moment!
Those who love The Big Guy can take the train. In these cars we climbed the 2,330 foot mountain, a 2.4 mile long, 20 minute journey. This engineering marvel was opened in 1884!
As our train climbed the mountain, Bevan tried to capture the lush flora and fauna and self-constructed shanties darting by our windows... Not an easy task.
Almost at the top, one last foggy panorama of Rio before the city faded into the mist...
A full-on view of Corcovado Monument, pedestal and all, from behind..
Fogbound, The Big Guy could use a red-nosed reindeer...
From Wikipedia, a look at Corcovado and The Big Guy on a sunny day... Different, huh? : - )
This isn't a holy roller, just a common position for photographing the enormity of The Big Guy.
I calmed my hunger with a 'cro-KET-chee,' a Brazilian meat pie heavy on starch and fried to a crisp crackle. Brazil abounds in such snacks, their equivalent of a New York hot dog stand...
We were hoodwinked into an expensive, crowded van ride back to town. Then the driver had the nerve to make us wait while he conned more suckers into his cattle car. I took revenge by wreaking havoc on his pre-set radio stations and cranking up the volume. On the way down, down, down back to the train station, I hung out the window taking pictures such as this one...Then we took a cab to Rio's Modern Art Museum. But that's another story...
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