Nothing is quite as iconically Brazilian to me as the amazing Cristo Redentor statue which stands like a concrete scarecrow hovering above Rio de Janeiro. I had to see it and the bus trip to Cosme Velho where Cristo lives also provided a very welcome break from the urine smells and homeless camps of Centro (downtown) which was making me seriously homesick for Auckland.

To meet the maker we took a rather packed train up Corcovado Mountain through lush bush. I breathed a sigh of relief at something so green and normal, at something pretty and pleasant. We were jammed into the rickety train with about 40 old timers from the United States who were straight off their cruise ship for a day in Rio de Janeiro. As they got everyone involved in a Clinton vs Obama debate, and yelled about their offshore bank accounts, I found myself happy to understand what people were saying.

It rained on our trip up the mountain but that didn´t matter for when we reached the top, the view was absolutely astounding (even if a bit hazy due to the weather). Rio de Janeiro is huge, a city of seven million Cariocas and it has an almost unbelievable sprawl, at least to someone from the City of Sails. At one point I was totally gobsmacked by the sheer size of it all when I realised I could only see half the view from where I was standing.

Cristo Redentor is really an amazing statue. It was built in the 1930s, which must have been a mammoth effort for the time. It can be seen from throughout the city except for much of our stay, the gloomy weather kept it hidden under a mysterious haze, so it was great to get up close and stand below the massive concrete icon.

Check out more photos from my trip in my Flickr album.