Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy is traveling up the east coast of the US. As our delegation is scheduled to leave tomorrow night, delegates have some concern about air service disruption, but it's really too soon to tell.
As today is Saturday, we were able do do some sightseeing, taking in the "Christ the Redeemer" monument and the Tijuca rain forest.
The monument is perched on top of a mountain, and is 120 feet tall. In several stages, visitors climb up to the base of the monument, which is surrounded by a thick fog, then chat and mill around waiting with their cameras out. Intermittently, the fog will clear and the stature will emerge--the crowd cheers at it's appearance and rushes to take photos before the fog returns within 30-45 seconds of clearing. People lie on their backs on the viewing platform to capture family and friends modeling the statue's pose against the backdrop of the monument itself.
The Tijuca rainforest is a mountainous second growth rain forest that runs through the middle of the city of Rio. It's original growth was cleared by the Portuguese for plantations of tobacco and other crops. It was later replanted using imported plants from other regions of the world, primarily India. Currently, only about 4% of the plants in the rain forest are indigenous. The delegation took a fabulous open jeep tour of the forest, met a capuchin monkey that posed for photos, and got to experience the traditional temperature and humidity that a rain forest evokes.
In Tijuca and on the monument we found a number of truly spectacular views of the city, the bay, Sugar Loaf, Copacabana beach, and Ipanema.
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