Corcovado

Monday 23rd May 1988

I awoke quite early thanks to the dreadful din from the building site opposite and got up to write some letters and postcards in the common room. At 10:30 hrs. I went out with Jim to the Post Office and then we did a survey of the cambios in order to change up some travellers cheques.

The “official rate” in American Express was 155 Cruzados to the $US dollar but we got 200 Cruzados at the Diamond Jewellers at Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana 387-B. I bought another expensive slide film for my camera for 2,400 Cruzados on the way back to the Youth Hostel.

I got my camera and we headed for the Corcovado, the prominent hill with the statue of Christ the Redeemer on the top. Bus 583 from Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana hurtled through the suburbs, narrowly missing vehicles and pedestrians alike, using a maximum of braking and acceleration to keep us passengers off balance.

We arrived at the bottom of the hill and paid 500 Cruzados for a return train trip to the summit. The red, subway-like train hauled us up the steep track to a superb panoramic view of Rio de Janeiro threading between the lakes and hills below. The big Jockey Club Racetrack was particularly noticeable.

The Corcovado Rack Railway (Portuguese: Trem do Corcovado) is a mountain rack railway which runs from Cosme Velho to the summit of Corcovado at an elevation of 710 m (2,329 ft). The railway was opened by Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil on 9th October 1884. Initially hauled by steam locomotives, the line was electrified in 1910, a first in Brazil. It was re-equipped in 1980 with trains built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) of Winterthur, Switzerland.

The line is 3.824 kilometres (2.376 miles) long and has four stations total. There are three trains, each made of two cars. The trip takes approximately 20 minutes and departs every 20 minutes, giving a capacity of 540 passengers per hour.

We matched up the view with our map. All around us tourists were busy with their cameras and video recording cameras around the huge statue with the outstretched arms in spite of the grey cloudy sky.

We went back down on the train and took a bus back to Copacobana, following a long circuitous route through the Jardim Botanico, Leblon and Ipanema. We browsed through the numerous book and magazine shops on the walk back to the Youth Hostel from the bus stop.

It was getting dark and the long-threatened rain had just started to fall. Everybody in the dormitory sat about on their beds reading while a stiff breeze lashed the palm tree outside the window. A Portuguese bloke arrived and began swigging from a bottle of sherry.

He was going to see the English rock band “Gene loves Jezebel” and I decided to join him. The concert was on in a big cabaret hall just the other side of the tunnel that linked Copacabana to Botafogo.

A young crowd gathered in the venue drinking Chopp beer from plastic cups. There were a few token ripped jeans in evidence, but the majority were pretty clean cut kids. Billed here as the top band from the UK, Gene Loves Jezebel are a British rock band formed in the early 1980s by identical twin brothers Jay (born John) and Michael Aston. The name of the band is a reference to rock musician Gene Vincent and his song "Jezebel".

Gene Loves Jezebel's best-known songs include "Heartache", "Desire (Come and Get It)" (1986), "The Motion of Love" (1987), "Jealous" (1990) and "Break the Chain" (1993), as well as alternative club hits "Bruises" (1983), "Influenza (Relapse)" (1984) and "The Cow" (1985). "The Motion of Love" was the band's most successful UK single. The band were an enjoyable glam rock outfit with long hair and camp poses.

We looked for a lively place for final drink in Copacabana before going back to bed, but it was pretty dead. We settled for a McDonalds instead and demolished a huge avocado in the common room before turning in at 01:00 hrs.