Brazil Day 25 - Cristo and a campsite

After yesterday's ludicrous exertions in crowded places we decided to hit another crowded place, but as early as possible so it wasn't too mental.I was up at dawn to get on the move to the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue that everyone knows here in Rio. BenQ had done some substantial analysis many hours into the night and determined that the best to get there early before the crowds was to get a minibus from near the lake at Largo do Machado which would take us right up to the top. We got a tube to the Largo place and hung around for a bit before the little ticket office opened. There were at least 10 minibuses lined up ready for the off. The first minibus that we got as soon as we could buy a ticket left at about 07:45 for the 15 minute drive to the top (pretty quick as it was v.early on a Sunday morning).It is an excellent way to do it. The alternative is to get a little train to the top but you need to book that, or possibly turn up early but with no guarantees the bus was a much better option. If doing the bus thing - get there on or around 07:30 to get the first bus. The ticket was R$51 which covered the bus fare and the entry to the statue "exhibit". As per many of these attractions, they appear to be extremely efficient money making exercises. Take a big mountain that people can go up for nothing if they want, stick a statue on the top, and start coining it. There were also a fair number of religeous folk up there singing away - what do they expect to happen - it's a statue built by people with no involvement from any deity as far as I could see. Still they seemed happy.It was noticably cooler at the top. It is really pretty high up there, the Corcovado mountain on which it stands being 700m tall (2300 feet). The attendants up there were wearing long coats which we thought a little over the top as t-shirt and shorts were our dress code for the day. The road to the top is pretty twisty and would be an admirable ride on a KTM950 SM or similar - not so good for the poor guys cycling up it though. It's a bit like the top of the Col du Galibier in the French Alps but without the snow.It was moderately quiet up there when we arrived, with about 20 people already milling about. We did the obligatory "stand with your arms outstretched like the statue" pictures and within about 10 minutes the place was heaving. The first train must have arrived as there were suddenly a couple of hundred people up there. It's somewhat akin to a war zone, with everyone lying on the floor trying to get the correct angle for the picture they wanted. I found this much more interesting than the actual statue so took pictures of people taking pictures of the statue instead.Quick kit diversion - I had my Sony RX100 mk2 and a Canon 580EXII flash with me and a couple of Pocket Wizard radio triggers so I could trigger the flash wirelessly off the camera. The RX100 has a very fast 1/2000th flash sync speed so I used this to liven up a few of the pictures during the day. It's much more interesting than plain on-camera flash, if a bit fiddly.After amusing ourselves for a bit, and trying to take a picture nobody had ever taken before (impossible) we headed down the steps to the waiting minibus which took us very nicely back into town, going past some very flash houses on the way with high walls, razor wire and guards on the gates.The next job for the day was to visit a spot that I had seen from the media bus in transit from the stadium back to my apartment. It was near the Sambadrome and looked like a refugee encampment of some sort. I reckoned it was a place for fans who had nowhere to stay and were sleeping in their cars, campers, tents etc. This sounded excellent "feature" material, and keen to keep the paying work ticking over this went up to the next slot in the itinerary. After a bit of quizzing of my fantastic landlady Dani, and a lady at the metro station, we found our way to the Terreirao Do Samba which is usually an open air music stage and arena.It had now been converted as I'd expected into an urban campsite for the accommodation-less. The city council had seen that lots of people were sleeping in their cars or setting up tents in odd places, so rather than have them scattered all around the city they offered up the Terreirao Do Samba as a secure area with water and sanitation. Obviously it worked really well as the place was packed with every conceivable vehicle plus lots of tents and lots of "alternative" (as well as normal) people.The majority were Argentinians but there were also people there from Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and the USA. A lot of the folks were very happy to chat and have their photographs taken as we wandered around in the baking sun.It was a very interesting, creative sort of place - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Do check out the full gallery! Oh, and there were a lot of "proper" VW campers, not the glammed up expensive types seen so often in the UK. Later tonight three of us are off to the steak place for all you can eat sumptious ribeye and filet mignon etc. Yum!