I arrived in Rio de Janeiro in May 2018 and enjoyed a fantastic stay in the fabulous Hotel Atlantica Praia, located on the beachfront. It had spectacular beach views of Copacabana beach from the Rooftop bar. It was also conveniently located for the collections by the various tour operators, for the tours which I had booked. The Metropolitan Cathedral was the first stop of the tour of the old city, from there we were also driven past the impressive Carioca Aqueduct and then we stopped off at Escadaria Selarón, also known as the ‘Selaron Steps’, a set of world-famous steps covered in mosaic tiles from all around the world. This was the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón as a tribute to the Brazilian people. Christ the Redeemer is a giant Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ created by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by the Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with the French engineer Albert Caquot. I had to book the same tour twice, as on the first visit to the statue, not much of it was visible do to mist on the Corcovado mountain peak where it is located. At the statue, there is also a lift and and escalator up to the top. I remember thinking how much smaller this statue felt than the Statue of Liberty. We then drove to the other viewing point, where we took a cable car up to the the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. The cable car moves between Praia Vermelha and the Sugarloaf Mountain and stops at Morro da Urca on its way up and down. This was a spectacular viewing point which I highly recommend! There were cheeky little Marmoset monkeys eating nibbles from the tables, but we were advised not to feed or stroke them, as they may bite.