ile!!!

The next morning we woke again to sunshine streaming through our window. We arranged with Fausto to go to Christo Rendator after breakfast and we were preparing ourselves for another hair-raising drive through the streets of Rio. En-route Fausto was complaining about the cobbled streets and the damage it does to your car, but we both thought that if you drove at a slower pace then the damage to your car would be minimal! Everyone in Rio drives too fast! Thankfully we didn’t have to drive through downtown and went on the top road through Santa Teresa so were rewarded with great views over the city. We did pass by one of the favelas which was a stark reminder of the difficulties this city has to contend with. The divide between rich and poor is as wide as it is in India and the effects of this are obvious.

We arrived at Christo

Rendator or Christ the Redeemer to give it its touristy name and it was very busy. There were tour groups galore but they didn’t really spoil our visit. The statue is amazing close up and very calming in a funny sort of way. The views over the city were the best we had seen and Rio certainly deserves the tag of being one of the world’s prettiest cities. It is a spectacular setting for a city and it is easy to forget all of its woes when standing above and looking down on this jewel. The sparkling waters and pointy mountains are mesmerising and it was easy to forget the bustle of tourists vying for space to get that picture perfect shot of themselves next to Christo!

After an hour or so we headed back to the hostel and checked out where the Jardim Botanico were as we fancied going to them in the afternoon. We took another nerve racking bus ride and arrived at the gardens around lunch time. We had