Rio de Janeiro





The Nova Catedral Metropolitana rises up like some futuristic teepee.  Built between 1964 and 1976.  It is 83m high with a diameter of 104m and a capacity of 20,000 people .

Ipanema Beach at Dusk 4:10 pm
 Ipanema Beach in the early evening 4:35PM
 Looking west from the east end of Ipanema Beach


Looking North-East from end of Ipanema Beach. 
 Around the point is Copacabana

Cocovado from Avenda Boregs De Mederos


 Night Traffic in Rio shot from our hotel room window.
Older buildings in Rio








Busy streets in the older part of Rio.



The Fountain in the Botanical Gardens

This is the Escadara Selaron in the older section of Rio de Janerio.  The steps are covered in ceramic tiles designed and made by artists from all over the world.  This was the idea of Chilean artist Cerlaron to honour the Brazilian people. 
 


This is the cable car to Sugar Loaf (Pao d'Acucar), you get on another car to take
you over to the higher mountain.  As you can see the we are going into the clouds. It did clear enough to get some photographs, see the ones  below.




Our first views of Ipanema Beach, unfortunately the weather would remain like this for our 3 days in Rio.  Viewing some of the pictures below we did have some bright momments inbetween the rain and wind.

Ipanema beach


Copacabana beach

Copacaband Beach taken through window of a moving bus.
 
Favel at Leblon Beach

The entrance for the car to Christ the Redeemer

The most famous of all images of Rio is that of the vast statue of Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) gazing across the bay from Corcovada ( hunchback) hill, arms outstretched in welcome, or as if preparing for a dive into the waters below. The art deco statue 30m high and weighing over 1000 metric tons, was scheduled to be  completed  in 1922 as part of Brazil's centenary independence celebrations, but this symbol of Rio wasn't in fact finished until 1931.  The French sculptor Paul Landowski was responsible for the head and hands, while the engineers Heitor Silva Costa and Pedro Viana constructed the rest.

 The stairs up to the statue, as you can see we are in the midst of a cloud. So no spectacular pictures of Rio from here, but it was still  an adventure.