South America Part 28 - Rio Day 3 and the Christ the Redeemer

We woke up to another crappy chocolate cake filled breakfast down at the hotel de chocolate cake. We have slowly been noticing that breakfast each day is getting busier and busier and that the hotel is slowly filling up.
All hotels in Rio (for NYE) have this rip off "5 Night Minimum Stay" with the added bonus of the hotels jacking up their rates by three times.

Ant thought it would be best if we spent the morning going up to the Christ The Redeemer. Following LPs trustworthy advice - we were going to catch a local bus to the bottom of the Christ The Redeemer Peak Funicular Train station.

Buses are usually so frequent in Rio that they make the buses in Canberra feel like an eternity between buses. Walking down the main road of Copa - there are buses every 4 seconds (most of them with nobody on them). Most of the traffic in Rio appears to be caused by the buses. Most buses lack proper suspenion - and most drivers lack any sanity whatsoever. Although there were buses going past our busstop every 3 seconds - the particular bus that LP told us to wait for took more than 25 minutes to show. There was a finnish couple (that we had spotted at the hotel breakfast) who were also trying to catch the same bus. Ant started to get chatting and they were told by hotel staff "not to catch the buses as they are dangerous" or something. Of course when the bus finally arrived - it was super busy. When we made it to the train station - there was another bus right behind us (empty of course).

The train station made the lines at Disneyland look small. We had to queue up for about one hour to get our tickets - then another 30 minutes waiting for our train to turn up. Of course - in true LP form - it stated that the price for the tram was about $USD 8... Try more than double that - at $36 reals ($1 real more expensive than the excellent Sugar Loaf Cable Carts which you didn`t have to line up for 5 hours). I had thought that because the tram wasn´t the only way up to the Christ The Redeemer (you can taxi or bus or walk it) - then maybe it would be cheaper than the Sugar Loaf. The company running the train appeared to be also running every taxi around the station (it all had the train logo on it) - so there is some dodgy cartel running to keep the ticket prices high. Maybe it would of been cheaper (and less painful) to just walk up to the top and get mugged along the way.

Once we reached the peak (formerly known as the Pinancle of Temptation - sounds like a reality show) - the view was spectatcular - but the crowds of tourists was a bit overwhealming at times. At least with the Sugar Loaf - you could attempt to get away from the crowds by doing the "rainforest walk".

We were approached by a strange European tourist who said to Ant - "My wife and I are having a bet. She thinks you are a famous American actor!". ¿Que?

To add salt in our wounds - you had to queue to get back onto the train thru two "pens" (just like farm yard animals). Once we were in the second pen - I asked Ant to push in in order to get a decent seat on the train. Ant said that he could hear americans saying "would you look at this guy!?" in a disapproving tone.

Thinking that this would be a short activity - we left the hotel at 10ish and didn`t get back down to the bottom until 4ish. Two thumbs up! Instead of waiting for the LP bus to show up - we hopped on a mini bus (not knowing where the bus would head). After 10 or so minutes - a metro stop appeared so we got off. As we both have a strong love for Kilo Restaurants - we happened to find a Kilo restaurant for lunch which was cheaper than the one for dinner the night before. Hopefully we won`t be putting on the kilos...

We chilled out for a couple of hours back at the hotel. I made my first appearance at the Royalty Hotel pool - which would have to be the free world`s shallowest pool. You could sit cross legged at the shallow end and kneel at the deep end.

Ant had a strong desire to go back to the Rio Sol (big shopping mall close by to Copa) - so we hopped on a bus (another potential mugging opportunity) and went shopping. For NYE in Rio - it is good luck to wear white. I hadn`t brought any white clothes with me so can you guess what I had bought at the mall - a black skeletor t-shirt (they had white skeletor tees but I liked the black better). We finished the evening with some cheapo fatty pizzas at the mall... We are starting to understand why there are so many at people in Brazil.