18/3 - Been there, done that.

Quite big – yup. A lot of concrete – tons. Packed with tourists – of course. Amazing view – probably. The weather forecast didn’t look too promising beforehand and Corcovado was as expected covered in clouds when I pulled the curtains at 06:10 on Saturday morning. Nope, that was not a typo, ten past six on a weekend morning. Friends with small children have the weirdest hours to work after and if you don’t want to hike alone, you better get out of bed early enough as well. 

Shouldn’t complain though, a later hike and visit to Cristo Redentor would have meant even hotter weather and even more tourists, so all good. We had a good hike up and I finally got to see one of the main tourist attractions in the city. Been there, done that. Need to come back on a clear day with fewer clouds though and perhaps even watch the sunset.

Once again, the Brazilian beach wear showed its versatility. I knew since before that Havaianas were great for hiking, but also Speedos are apparently part of the South American mountain outfits. You’ll be sweating like on the beach anyways, so I guess why not?

A couple of hours after getting back from the hike, I got a bit worried that I’d ended up in a Ghostbusters movie or had moved in at Hogwarts with Harry and Hermione. For a split second I thought I saw a ghost in the elevator. But no need to panic, it was just one of the British tourists staying at the hotel. He’d probably spent the whole morning applying the sun block, which as such wasn’t too bad of an idea but very sensible actually. The only risk with spending so much time preparing for the beach is that sometimes it will start raining while you’re busy with the pre-beach procedures…like it did that Saturday.