Day 9 Rio...
Today is
our trip to Corcovado, one of the wonders of the world.
We had an
early breakfast today because we had to leave the hotel at 9am for our
reservation to go up on the train to Corcovado.
We departed
the hotel and arrived to the train station in about 30 minutes. It really
wasn’t a train but more like a ride at Disneyland. There were only 2 cars
to the train and at 10:20 am we were on our way up the steep hillside through
the forest / jungle to the top or so we though. Once we got off the train
we still had about 100 steep steps to get the base of the statue. We all
thought we were in good shape until we started doing the stairs...
Finally at
the top of the mountain we could see why this is considered so special.
Aside from the size of the statue... the views high above RIO were
AMAZING.... We could see about a 270 degree view of RIO.... and where some of
the Olympic venues will be.
We were not
alone at the top and almost had to fight to get a space to take our team
photo.... but we managed to do it. Once the team photo was done we had
about another 30 minutes to take individual photos of ourselves and of the
city.
We took the
train back down the mountain during the trip several of us fell asleep during
the 20 minute trip.
Once we
were back to the bottom of the mountain we took taxis over to Ipanema Beach to
meet our Brazil friend Wellington.
He had set
up a beach volleyball court and a beach tennis court for us. None of us
had played beach tennis before so Wellington gave us a few lessons. While
it looks easy it is a very difficult game.
We switched
back and forth between beach tennis and beach volleyball for most of the
afternoon. A few of us went into the water but because the surf was so
rough we only went in up to our knees.... which was too far for coach Russ as
he toppled over and had a difficult time getting his feet under himself.
It was a good reminder of why... we were only going in knee deep water.
After our
long day at the beach we took taxis back to the hotel to get ready for our Brazilian
BBQ.
The restaurant
was only about 4 blocks away from our hotel so we walked there.
Once inside
we saw waiters bringing skewers of meat out from the kitchen and delivering it
to the tables.... the cutting pieces of it off right onto your plate...
Different types of meat and different cuts of meat all with different
flavors... but all were good.... There was also a variety of salads and
sushi which we all took advantage of. About 1 hour later we were ready
for our WADDLE home...
Tomorrow is
our last day in Rio ... we are going to play volleyball and go shopping.
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