Corcovado e Christo

We went up to Corcovado yesterday. Corcovado is the place where the huge art deco Christ statue is. It's at the top of a mountain and visible from many places in Rio, e.g. when you step outside of the apartment building or from the botanical gardens. I've gotten used to Christ being a small hazy figure that I can cover up with my thumb, but up close the statue is quite large. (If I was actually good with numbers I could estimate the height, but I can't, so if you're interested, just google "christ statue" and "Rio de Janeiro" and you'll probably get all your questions answered.) The statue struck me more as a piece of artwork and a tourist trap than a piece of religion, though. Funny. I wonder what the designer meant it to be.

The view from up there is breathtaking - you can see the whole city, or at least most of it, and you can see the expanse of the Tijuca National Forest as well. It was a cloudy when we were there, and the wind was blowing the clouds around like smoke. It reminded me of a few walks up to Lawerence Berkeley National Hall of Science. (Although I suppose when you do your undergrad at Cal, your heart looks for it everywhere.) We took some pictures here, too, which I also will post eventually. Bear with me; not having internet at home makes things more complicated, and I’m bad enough at pictures as it is.