The second half of our walking tour really produced the WOW factor. This art work truly was amazing and the best I have ever seen. In 2012 Rio de Janeiro's Mayor gave permission for street art and graffiti to become legal and muralists now have a freedom that many in the world envy.

Also Police officers support graffiti initiatives for city beautification and as a crime deterrent.They understand that graffiti can be a career opportunity for youth in low income neighbourhoods.

 Some of the art is thought provoking, some humorous,

 Some quite bizarre and some very intricate.

 I loved  this one above. The artist had incorporated 5 ugly steel barred windows into flaming lanterns.

 This wall art above and below was commissioned by the Government for the 2016 Olympic games in Rio.
The artist was Eduardo Kobra and with his team of artists they finished the whole exercise in just 45 days using 2,800 cans of spray paint and 180 buckets of acrylic paint.

 The work on the beard was so intricate and clear.

 The next day we took a van up to the top of Mount Corcovada to view the iconic landmark, Christ the Redeemer which has sat there since 1931 and is now listed as one of the New Severn Wonders of the world.
It is surrounded by Tijuca one of the worlds largest urban forests, and was designed by Brazilian Heitor de Silva utilising reinforced concrete covered by thousands of soapstone tiles. The statue is 31 metres high and sits on an 8 metre base.

It was an amazing sight and we felt very privileged to see it. And also very lucky as we arrived in the first van of the day which was great because there were only 25 of us there, but unfortunately there was cloud cover at first so we couldn't see anything at all. However it cleared enough off and on for us to view and get photos before the crowd converged.

 

 The views below were spectacular. I would love to have been there on a clear day but we were lucky that there enough breaks in the cloud to get glimpses.