Christo Redemptor and the Last Day

So after solid 11 hours of sleep, I woke up fresh as a daisy to a half-empty warehouse section and a little sign. 

It has electric blue blending to a steel grey on the inside of its wings which were too brief for me to capture. I sat and enjoyed the sun on Peir Maua and listened to Mumford and Sons as people began to trickle out and pack to leave.

We had a big day today with our booking to go up to Corvado to see Christo! I was really looking forward to that and we all piled onto a bus to take us to the train to get up there. It was a pretty steep ride up and the isles were so narrow between the seats that my hips were too wide and I had to turn sideways!

All I can say about this time up there is wow! 

 After looking to him from a distance for so long, I got to see him up close.

He was amazing! The largest Art Deco sculpture in the world. He's a handsome looking Jesus and from up close looking up a him the way you're supposed to, his face is no where near as harsh or severe looking as you would expect. He is magnificent! Made from concrete and mosaiced soapstone. I loved every second of being up there! The spectacular view was a bonus.

We were so blessed! Just as we had to leave, a cloud rolled in and obscured everything! The timin couldn't have been more perfect and I have an awesome visor of the swirling cloud. 

Fr Peter beat us all down to the train stop and we saw a troop of capuchin monkeys running through the trees giving  him the perfect opportunity to make some joke about my relatives. 

We then took about an hour to find the bloody bus after we got back to ground level and then heade downtown to tr metropolitan cathedral which is a spectacular looking building like something out of a sci-fi movie. 

The whole catherdal is made up to two layers of overlapping concrete tiles that leave an opening right up to the top. It keeps water out and let's the building ventilate extremely effectively keep it at a relatively steady temperature even when it is packed with 25 000 people. 

The stained glass windows are amazing jewel bright, but almost all of the concrete is unfinished. So it feels a bit ick. None the less it was pretty cool. 

We then caught up with the padres, Nathan, Doug, Sarah and Natty for a late lunch. That was also the source of the second ordering boo boo of the trip. Doug though he was getting linguini pasta and instead ended up with Lingue, cow tongue! 

I tried a bit with my chicken risotto and it was delicious, melt in your mouth tender (No pun intended). That is until you psyched yourself out. Which I didn't do thankfully. We then had to race back to Pier Maua for our debriefing and dinner at  Hotel Sao Francisco. 

We were celebrating because Carlos Proposed to Sharnee at the top of Corcovado! 

Much to our annoyance, Harvest moved us out of the warehouse we were in and tossed us in on at the other end. However, we made mattress forts and generally ran around with a million mattresses like children. Awesome videos ensued. 

Tuesday was a free day to do any last minute shopping and sight seeing. I web and walked the way to Copacabana, yes again! This time I followed the coastline and was treated to secluded beaches and magnificent view of planes coming jnto land infront of Sugarloaf mountain.

It was then back to Aussie central for the bus ride to the airport. I was a bit sad. I got separated from everyone at

Check in and didn't have as much time as I would have liked to say goodbye. I am terrible at goodbyes. Horrible at them. 

It was time to say goodbye and say hello for the really scary part.