Super Jesus and the Sugar Loaf

I made it to Rio alive in one piece. The flight was twelve hours  and I had nobody sitting beside me  on the plane so I made a bed out of three seats and slept for a lot of the flight.

I landed in Rio at nine o clock and walked out to meet my English speaking driver who brought me back to the hostel. In the hostel I was put in a nine bed dorm room on my own which I wasn't that happy about. The hostel was having a barbecue when I arrived so I rocked on down to eat and bumped into an Irish girl and Scottish guy who had been travelling around SA for a couple of months. I also met an English couple who had spent the last five months travelling and were going home in two days. After a few drinks myself, the Irish and the Scot decided that the next day we would go visit Christ the Redeemer and the sugar loaf mountain.

The following day after an amazing breakfast in the hostel we rocked up to see Christ the Redeemer.Re The statue itself is easy enough to get to by bus and you do not need to book a tour to see it as this costs a lot of money.

After you get the bus you then get a really slow train up the mountain to the statue. This is actually fairly cool and they have a samba band on the train so its a bit of craic.

The statue itself is grand but to be honest its just a really big statue of Jesus so if your into giant statues of Jesus then go for it and have an auld pray inside him while your there. Not really my idea of fun  but sure each to their own and all that. I kept imagining the giant statue shooting laser beams out of its eyes which would be really cool and make it worth the money you pay to get up to it.

The main reason to go up to the statue other then to see if it actually can shoot laser beams out of its eyes is for the views. The views of Rio from the top on a clear day are second to none. They will literally leave you thinking that the people who live here are the luckiest in the world to live in such a beautiful place.

Anyway after a couple of minutes of looking at super Jesus we left and went to the sugar loaf to catch the sunset.

To get up to the top of the Sugar Loaf you get two cable cars which are pretty cool and you get loads of amazing views of the city again. At the top you watch the sun descend rapidly behind the mountain leaving an orange glimmer that lingers around the mountain tops illuminating the mist and the city in a fiery haze.

Its worth hanging on a while to watch the city light up as well as the flavelas scattered around the mountain tops.

Then high tail out of there because if you hang around anywhere in the dark in Rio you will probably get robbed and that would be no craic at all.

Things you cannot be at

1.Don't get a tour up to Christ and the Sugar Loaf. You can get buses and the subway to each. To get into both is expensive enough without paying for a tour.

2. Don't go to the sugar loaf during the day. Its best to see this at night.

3. Don't wear flashy jewelery and don't bring your brand new i pad. Rio is not as dangerous as everyone thinks but don't make yourself stand out.