The statue of “Christ the Redeemer” is situated on top of the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro. Even better than the statue itself is the view one can get from the observation point in front of it.

But the process of getting there brings back memories from Machu Picchu. The train is not working. There is no sign to tell about the alternatives, but at least ten people are waiting near the train station to invite you to the private vans that do the service. The distance is 8km, but the van will only drive you for 4km. There you have to buy another ticket, from the park service, and switch vans. The park service itself looks less like a business and more like a welfare system, being overstaffed: there is a ticket vendor, a guy arranging people to form a waiting line, another one who opens the van door and invites people inside. The van will take you to the top station, where another person is paid to open the van door (there is another one opening doors for people who want to leave as well). Continue towards the entrance, where you will find a person that takes the ticket from your hand and inserts it into the subway-like machine. Proceed towards the elevators, where a person will push the button to call the elevator for you. There are three elevators, with two stops each. Therefore, two buttons in each elevator, but there is another person hired to push those two buttons. Once at the top stop, another person invites you to step outside the elevator.

We path then continues with an automatic stairway where, surprisingly, there is nobody to invite us to advance 🙂 Finally we got to the observation deck. The effort is well worth it!

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