Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, not the same during winter...

Copacabana Beach

View of Rio

View of Sugerloaf Mountain taken from Corcovado

Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado mountain, appearing from the mist

Thursday was a early morning, I had to go up at 0430 AM to get to the airport to take a flight to Rio for the customer meeting that we had been preparing for during Tuesday and Wednesday. The flight left from Congonhas (CGH) which is one of those airports that are heavily criticized for different safety problems. In Congonhas case it has to do with slippery runways which caused a big accident back in July when a landing plane skidded of the runway and crashed into a warehouse killing more than 180 people.

After having a customer meeting in Rio during Thursday, my colleagues continued back to Sao Paulo. Since the weekend was starting in Dubai and my flight didn’t go back to Dubai until late Friday evening I stayed behind in Rio to do some sightseeing during Friday. The weather wasn’t the best since it was still spring in Rio so you didn’t really see any of the hectic life around Copacabana Beach which you are used to seeing on movies and on pictures.

Still, I rented a taxi for a couple of hours to drive around in Rio and despite the weather I managed to see some of the more famous sights in Rio, and especially Christ the Redeemer which was voted as being one of the New Seven Wonders of the World back in July, 2007. I think it was actually the first time I had a unbooked extra day whilst traveling so it was nice to be able to see something else than airports, hotels and meeting rooms.

Brazil · Rio de Janeiro