Hot day

Today we woke up kinda early and went for a run around the lake near our hostel called Loa=ga (Scott's idea of a good time on vacation).  It was really pretty with a nice bike/running path all the way around.  The weather has been pretty hot, about 95 degrees mid-day with the same humidity we have back in Hampton Roads (apparently we just can't get away from it).

We went to see Christ the Redeemer today (the huge statue overlooking the city), it was pretty cool, but unfortunately as you can see they were doing some cleaning and had scaffolding all over it.  The craziest thing about this statue is that it was constructed back in 1926 in several pieces and taken all the way to the top of this peak like mountain.  The roads were pretty rough with a constant 20% grade, so its unbelievable to think they moved all the equipment up there so long ago.  For those history buffs out there, the statue is 30m high with an arm span of about 27m.

Some interesting things we learned about Rio...on the metros during prime time, they reserve an entire car for only females. We went to the least crowded car, naturally he guided me to the car with only women, and got kicked out by some guards at the next stop. Luckily, they actually held the doors open to make sure we still got on a different car.  Note to men coming to Rio...do not get into the pink and black metro cars between 5 and 8. 

This is a church that was built on top of an exploded hill.

And another cool looking building....

 The other thing we thought was interesting is the way this city is built around these mounds - mountain - sheer cliff - things, called Morro in Portuguese. They are tall rocks but very steep so its hard to say it's a mountain....similar to where the Christ Redeemer statue is built. They jut up everywhere and buildings are built around them...no big deal. We tried to walk back to our hostel last night only to discover a huge road block!