Corcovado and a fake millionaire
My last week in Rio consisted of little else than bumming around and hanging out, although on Monday I decided to visit the last must-see thing on my list: a trip to the Corcovado, where the Christ statue rises tall over the city of God. Before getting on a bus heading for the tourist train that runs up the Corcovado, I took my mascotte, Mr Wilson (named after the football in Cast Away) for a photo shoot on Copacabana beach.
After a 30 minute bus ride I got to the train station and caught one of the last trains going up the hill, as I wanted to take some pictures during sunset. Some 20 minutes later, the train reached the top, where I was treated to what is in my opinion the best view over Rio, despite what most tourist guides say.
And of course I had to take some pictures of the Cristo...
The next few days were rather uneventful and consisted of bumming around Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. On one of my walks around Ipanema, I passed by an Amsterdam Sauer jewelry store, which also happened to hold the biggest private collection of jewelry in Brazil. I was invited in and given a tour in which I saw a few million dollars worth of diamonds pass before my eyes.
Since I didn´t have anything better to do, I decided to kill some time and pretend I was a millionaire looking for a nice wedding ring. It was fun pretending to be a millionaire who´d be getting married next year. When they asked where I lived, I said Brussels and San Diego. "Ah... 6 months - 6 months", the saleslady asked. "Yeah, more or less... depends on business, you know."
On my last night in town, my wonderful host Marcia and the girls took me out for beers. We headed to a bar in Ipanema and added some more to my consumption of what feels like the two main ingredients of my Rio diet: cheese and beer.
Marcia, Mariana and Paula
