Well it's been quite a few days. On Thursday we went up Corcovado to see Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemor. In 2007 this statue was voted in as one of the new 7 wonders of the world and it's easy to see why. Overlooking the whole of Rio, the statue can be seen from most places in the city but we were far from prepared for just how good it is up close, not to mention the breathtakingly good views we could see once we were up there. Sadly it started raining just as our train up the mountainside departed, but with nearly 60% of Brazil covered by rainforest I guess the sunshine was never going to last for the whole of our trip. It didn't stop us from having an amazing day though and we still got some great snaps.
Yesterday we went up to the Copacabana Stadium, home of Brazillian football. It was pretty awesome as it's recently been renovated ahead of this year's World Cup. I couldn't help thinking of the 1950 World Cup Final, where some 200,000 people packed in hoping to witness Brazil lift the trophy only for Alcides Ghiggia to score the winning goal for Uruguay. I've read you could have heard a pin drop in the stadium after that goal.
After a quick stadium tour we went and purchased tickets for one of the biggest derbies in Rio, Botafogo v Flamengo, for this Sunday. I'm pretty excited.
After we left the stadium we hopped on a metro to go and find Escadaria Selaron, only we couldn't find them. After getting a little lost and being put in the right direction by a local woman we soon stumbled upon them when we thought we were actually lost again.
The steps were decorated by Chilean artist Jorge Selaron with tiles he had been sent from all over the world. He was also found dead at the bottom of the steps in mysterious circumstances last year. The steps themselves though are fantastic and colourful. There were a lot of youngsters there playing guitars and singing as well so it was generally a really cool place to be.
After all of the walking of the last couple of days we just crashed out last night. We were going to head to the beach again today but the weather is looking pretty overcast so we're just blogging before we decide what to do with the day!
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