More Updates from Rio

Sorry for not getting this updated a little bit sooner, but it has been an eventful week sortof. Apparently it’s been almost a week! Time flies, apparently.

Wednesday was pretty standard. More classes, more modeling, more cool climate stuff. IMPA has pretty good coffee for free on supply until 4pm, and all of us Seattlites are pretty much living on it, and on the verge of staging a coup when they try to shut it down. There are currently a bunch of very fun, very loud Irish guys outside the 9-bed dorm room, so everyone in our room is pretty sleep deprived. Hence the coffee addiction. We also finally formalized some ‘cab groups’, or a set of people we’re going to share taxis with for all the taxi rides we’re taking to and from IMPA and other places around Rio.

After the aforementioned somewhat bad sleep, we got up and got on with the day on Thursday. The destination of the day is Corcavado, the statue of Christ the Redeemer at the top of one of the highest mountains in Rio. After taxing to the bottom, Nathan bought us some tickets to ride up the tram. The tram is apparently the safer way to get to the top of the two common ways, the other being to actually walk. Since the area is so deserted it’s an ideal opportunity for muggers looking to rob you, so the train is highly recommended. In any case, the ride is very cool. It feels like you’re going straight up the side of the mountain most of the way, which I guess you are, but it’s a very intense climb, somewhat like a Disneyland ride or something. After getting to the top, you climb a whole bunch of stairs and finally stand next to this HUGE statue. Really truly unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It’s visible from pretty much anywhere with line of sight from inside the city, and it’s downright huge from immediately next to it. It also has gorgeous stones at the base. A lot of people took pictures in the same pose or reaching up towards the statue, but it’s also a great spot to get pictures with the city in the background, or either Copacabana or Impanema beaches. Our cab group left a little sooner than the rest, which ended up being good since one of our cab group members needed to finish a Summer Quarter exam. It was a really good day though, well worth the side trip!