Christmas: Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janiero

On Christmas day, the first thing we did was head out for some lunch in Rio. Also- we really didn’t use our car seat in Brazil; that is why Kevin is holding Ryder here! We did a few times on a bus like going to the hotel from the airport and vice versa. We traveled by taxi very often and didn’t want to carry around a car seat all day while we were exploring and such. Kelsi said that most people just hold their babies in cars (at least where she served.) So, we held Ryder…and only in Brazil will we do that! Not in the US ever!

We ate at a random restaurant and ordered a bunch of pizzas because it was taking everyone way too long to decide and Kelsi kept translating everything multiple times ha! The pizza was very good!!!

Then we headed out to a look out point on our way to see the Christ statue! It was so incredibly hot here! Ryder was just sweating away in the Ergo carrier!

After leaving the look out point, we made it to the base of the mountain where the Christ statue was. You could either ride a train up to the statue or take a bus. We took a bus because it was much faster and the Christ statue was very popular this day so we would have had to wait awhile to even get on the train. The bus ride was VERY scary! The driver was out of control speeding up on corners of an insanely high mountain haha. I think a lot of people wanted him to slow down haha. But we finally made it :) To get to where the statue is you get to climb a lot of stairs! Man, it was very tiring! We passed some touristy shops on the way up to the statue. Because the statue is so huge, it was hard to get the statue in the pictures as you can see :) Also, it was very crowded so you kind of got what you could take. The statue was incredible though! It seemed so large when you were below it on top of the mountain and when you are down in the city it still seems pretty large on that mountain! It is insane.

On the way down from the statue my family stopped in some tourist shops and got some postcards and a mini Christ statue. And…since it was so hot we all got some drinks to cool off. I got peach nectar. LOVED IT!!! The fruit juices in Brazil are amazing! If you have ever seen the movie Rio, it is very accurate! The picture at the look out point of the mountains is called ‘Sugarloaf'’ and it is even seen in the movie Rio. That is where we went after checking out the Christ statue!