A day tour of Rio - part 1 : Christ the Redeemer

The previous post in this series is here..

We had signed up for an all day tour of Rio with Viator and it was a good decision. It was in a large van with 15 people. We drove along the beach to pick up folks from different hotels and went to see Christ the Redeemer. We did stop at the visitor center. A different bus takes us to the top from the center through the Tijuca forest.

We were given 45 minutes to climb the steps, take pictures and get back to the bus. Our guide was waiting for us at the base of the steps. 

(that was someone else walking with an umbrella behind us!). This picture is from the visitor center..

It was a zoo out there with  a whole bunch of families waiting to get their kids baptized in the small single room chapel below the statue in 100+ degree heat! Getting clear photos was almost out of the question. We were also sweating profusely and just wanted to get back down to the shade.

Christ statue is majestic. However you cannot get good pictures as the ledge in front of Christ is very short. You can get great shots of his back from most of Rio! Don't think they thought this through when facing him that way.. at least from a photographers point of view..

Once we came down, they sell the pictures taken in front of a poster of the statue.. we were about to pay when we heard someone else bargain.. immediately the entire family jumped in to bargain! The girls have definitely inherited the "bargaining gene" from Madras thatha, which is a good thing!

Someday, will take a better photo of this photo.. this one is a keeper.. might frame it!

After this we visited the Santa Teresa neighborhood and saw the Favelas, got a view of the city and came down to see the area where samba parades are done.

Then we got to see the Maracana stadium for 10 minutes, which meant no time to go in.. we saw it from outside.

This was followed by a trip to the San Sebastian Church which resembles a football stadium more than a church. 

That is the Church building in the shape of a pyramid! Reminded me of churches in Kerala that have dwajasthambams to lure in locals.

The last stop before lunch was the painted steps, which was even more crowded than the Christ statue.. it was impossible to get a clean shot of folks.. even my method to have a frozen smile and take 4-5 shots and average them on Photoshop leaves too many ghosts..

After this the group was dropped off at a place for lunch. We didn't pay or order the lunch but were on the all day tour. A bunch of folks were only on a 1/2 day tour and split. We had packed our leftovers. So the guide and driver were kind enough to drop us off close to the lagoon where the afternoon tour would start.

We sat on the wall near the lagoon and ate under the shade of the trees. It was nice and breezy and we had a great view. 

Right after we finished and took some photos, we were picked up and went the afternoon's trip.

A highlight reel video of the mornings trip..

That post follows..