Brazil: a day of sightseeing

What a wonderful time I'm having here!!

Ok, we had to go see the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the entire city.  We can see it from our apartment, but there's nothing like seeing it up close.  It's 120 ft tall and sits on the top of a 2,300 ft hill in the middle of Rio.  The view is amazing.  We were out there staring at the beautiful scenery for so long that I got sunburned.  We took a train/tram up the hill and on the way back, there was this samba band playing and dancing (rather dangerous on the moving tram, as it ran a quite an angle!), and they let James play the tambourine.  Oh the fun!

The view from our window, on a cloudy day.

James and me in front of the statue of Christ the Redeemer.

Awesome.

James jamming on the tambourine.

Then we made our way to an arts district (similar to Hawthorne, for those familiar with Portland) via another light-rail-type transport.  Think light-rail meets roller-coaster.  We were packed onto the antique trolley as it rattled and rolled across narrow bridges and up hills, with taxis and busses narrowly missing the passengers hanging off the sides (most of them daring kids who would hold on and run their feet along the ground).  I apologize for the lack of photos, but I was too busy holding on for dear life!  I did get a picture in which you can see the shadow of the trolley passing over the arches of the Lapa district, and another of the heads of our fellow passengers.  We got off hoping to find someplace to eat and were beckoned over to the military police station by one of the officers.  He saw that we were American and wanted to practice his English.  He told us he had a sister who lived in Chicago, California, and spoke of his love for Christ in his heart.  A sweet man (which is a good thing, because the military police seem so scary!) but not too strong on the English.  I suppose that's why he keeps wanting to practice it.  Most of the restaurants in the area had closed, as it was getting dark, so we perused a few shops and then caught a bus back to our neighborhood.  

Shadow of the trolley running a break-neck speed over the Lapa Arches.  I'll try to get a pic from the ground before we leave.

Trolley-load of thrill-seekers and commuters.  What a ride!

We were both famished (we didn't really eat lunch), so we stopped by a restaurant and had a plate of grilled meat, rice and fries for two.  They should have said for four!  So much meat!  Basically, two large links of dinner sausage, three medium steaks, two chicken breasts, and one or two pork chops, accompanied by a mound of fries and another mound of rice.  Whoa!  It's a good thing we didn't eat lunch!  I ate a whole sausage and half of a steak, as well as an ample amount of fries and rice.  James made much more of a dent in the mound of meat, but we ended up taking about a third of it home.  I wish I could have eaten more.  Steak in Brazil is amazing!  I don't know exactly what makes them so juicy and flavorful; maybe it's the grass diet and lack of growth hormones.  Whatever it is, it made me a happy tourist!  And dulce de leche pudding (like non-eggy flan) for dessert.  Yum!  (We didn't bring our camera to dinner, but the food was a pretty as it was tasty!)

Things that I learned: don't judge things by their exterior appearance.  Example one was the nice military policeman.  After we chatted things up with him, we didn't feel so shy of asking other military policemen directions or advice.  Another example is this building:

We saw it and thought, "What an ugly building!"  James inquired and learned that it was a church, and that we could look inside if we wanted.  We were eager to catch the crazy-trolley to the arts district, but I'm glad we took the time to look inside:

Breathtaking.