I had 1 day off in between my shifts in Rio – so had to put on the tourist hat. Be in Rio ad not see the Redeemer or the famous Sugar Loaf? I have seen the Crist 12 years go, the 1st time I went to Rio – but Brian and I keep joking that he doesn’t exist because it was so foggy that day that while we stood under him – we saw literally nothing. But we do have pictures to pretend we were there!

This time around I got lucky as my day off was sunny, gorgeous winter (yes, winter!). I took a van from Copacabana to Corcovado, then a van, then escalator – yes – this place is about as commercialized as it gets. There are escalators and elevators to get to it – so while it looks buried in the Tijuca forest, it is a small town in the forest.

Once up there – you feel like you were thrown into a paparazzi red carpet, except the attention is not on you but on a large statue. And hundreds of people posing and selfieing the hell out of their own Crist poses, lying down, mimicking Crist, doing all sort of unnatural poses to come out with the best Instagram shot. I swear I am in 100+ selfies somewhere, or more like a piece of my shoulder or quarter of my skull.

View is gorgeous, statue is huge – besides that it is a 10 minutes type of sightseeing. Back down… Oh I did manage to finally see someone with a Czech T-shirt on so asked them for a picture – turns out I found the head of our Paralympic delegation and her translator!

Next – lunch on the beach with Lavinia (this is what a lunch off of IBM Office looks like) – on the beach! And Lavinia is not sleeping – just dreaming…

Stop 3 – Pao de Azurac as we Brazilians say – Sugar Loaf. It is actually 10 minutes walk from the IBM office, they literally look at it everyday from their windows – and a gorgeous Botafogo neighborhood on a bay. This place is the famous Rio mountain/hill/rock – if you will – you have seen it before. Funicular up, with a hill in the middle. Stunning view of the whole Rio, less selfie craziness.

Touristy things? Done. Felt very common, with the thousands of others taking pictures and pictures – sheep. Back to my exploration….