Saturday, 18 October 2014
Next, the Metropolitan Cathedral or the Cathedral of Saint Sebastian, which is located in the centre of the city. This church was built from 1964 to 1979, and is unlike any other church I've ever seen in my life. It is conical in shape, about 75 meters high and has a standing room capacity of 20,000 people. Inside, in 4 corners of the church, are stained glass going all the way up 64 meters to the ceiling. The 4 corners of the stained glass meet in the middle to form a cross at the internal roof of the church. It was beautiful, something really very different. And here I thought I've seen it all!
Then, we went to the Santa Theresa neighbourhood, to see the stairs of Selaron. This is a very colourful stairway which was the work of Chilean artist Jorge Selarón, who moved to Rio in 1983, in a tiny house just in front of the desolate stairway connecting the areas of Lapa and Santa Teresa. There are 215 steps that he entirely covered with tiles, ceramics and mirrors either collected in urban areas of Rio or donated by visitors from all around the world. Since 1990, Selarón has laid over 2000 tiles, unique pieces representing a tribute to the Brazilian people. He never finished embellishing the stairway, and one day in 2013 he was found dead lying on the very steps he decorated. This is a true story. The steps are probably the most famous steps in the world, Michael Jackson made his music video for 'They Don't Care About Us' here, among others.
Then we stopped for lunch. It was about 4 pm (since we started late and took forever to see Christ the Redeemer), and I was so hungry. It was a buffet lunch, and when everyone was done I was still eating because I was the only one who took seconds. This was embarrassing but in qmy defence, it was a buffet lunch, it was 4 pm and I was starving! And I would probably walk off the food anyway. What can I say, I love food!
After lunch, we went to the last place of the day - the Sugarloaf Mountain. This mountain is about 396 meters high. Its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. There are actually 2 peaks, and there are cable car rides to both which I took. The first peak is Urca Mountain, about 220 meters high. The second peak is Sugarloaf Mountain. From both peaks, but especially from Sugarloaf, you get a bird's eye view of the Botafogo harbour, Copacobana beach and the city of Rio. As it was getting dark, I got to see the view during the day time and when the lights were turned on. You could also see Christ the Redeemer in the distance, but it was a foggy day today and therefore it was not so clear.
And then we were done with the tour. I reached my hotel at about 7.30 pm. No tour agency would send me all the way up so I had to walk uphill and the thousand stairs again. I told you I would walk the food off. Then I had to decide once and for all whether to go home or travel some more, and finally I decided to travel some more (I probably will never again come back to this part of the world so I might as well make the most of it while I can) so I booked my flight ticket to Peru on 23 October 2014.
Tomorrow I have nothing to do, Monday I plan to go to Buzius, and Tuesday to another place called Petropolis, and Wednesday back to Peru. Maybe I am just denying the inevitable - that I will have to eventually go home, where I am sure things will go back to the same as it used to be and worse - I have to bloody work again!
No comments:
Post a Comment