(This is Chapter 5 from Mr. Prabhakaranâ€™s book, An Indian Goes Around the World â€“ I: Capitalism Comes to Maoâ€™s Mausoleum, which we have been serializing in this space every week. Chapter 6, â€œYoga on Copacabana, Conducted by a Brazilian Beauty,â€ will appear next week. Read the series every Monday. â€“ Editor)

A tourist to Rio de Janeiro doesnâ€™t consider his tour complete until he has visited Corcovado and PÃ£o dâ€™AÃ§Ãºcar. The panoramic view of the city one gets from the peaks of these two mountains is indescribable. I visited them on the very second day of my arrival in Brazil.

As the tour bus wound its way up the Corcovado (Hunchback) Mountain, the guide gave a description of the type of people who lived at different levels of the mountain. Actually, his description was unnecessary. One could tell even without it what type of people lived in the hutments of the foothills; what type did in the houses at next levels; and what type in the mansions above them.

The guide also pointed at a distance to the crime-ridden, drug-infested slum area of the city. Brazilians call it favela. It was the first time that I had a chance to see, though from a distance, the notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Until then, I had only read about them. The entire area is controlled by warlords. Even police and politicians dread to visit the area â€“ unless, of course, they are in cahoots with those warlords. And many of them are. A study conducted by the BBC, which was released around the time I visited the place (November 2001), said that in the preceding 14 years, 4,000 children below the age of 18 had been killed in gun battles in those favelas.

Jackfruits from India and China

We also passed by a lot of jackfruit trees on the way. The guide told us that those trees were originally brought from India and China. I had no problem believing in their Indian origin. They reminded me of my childhood days in Kerala, when I used to visit my grandmotherâ€™s house during summer and other holiday breaks from school. The compound of the house was full of jackfruit trees. The size of some of the fruits that I saw on the Hunchback Mountain would put even Dolly Parton to shame.

Atop the hump of the hunchback is the statue of what they call in Portuguese the Cristo Redentor, meaning Christ the Redeemer. It was built in commemoration of the centennial of Brazilâ€™s independence. Brazil declared its independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822. Nine years of arduous work by a team of French artisans headed by sculptor Paul Landowski and 1,145 tons of cement had gone into the making of the statue. Opened to tourists on October 12, 1931, it stands 130 feet tall, on the 2,310-foot-high Corcovado Mountain. Width-wise also, it is enormous. It shows Jesus in an about-to-embrace posture, his hands stretching to a width of 98 feet and 5 inches. The irreverent among Rio residents have a different explanation for that posture. They say Jesus was getting ready to clap for his favorite samba.

For Christians and non-Christians alike, the statue of Christ is reason enough to go to the top of Corcovado. What brings tourists there in droves, however, is the stunningly beautiful view of Rio de Janeiro they get, once they are up there. That view alone makes me want to visit the place again and again.

The next destination of our conducted tour was PÃ£o dâ€™AÃ§Ãºcar. Native Indians had called the 1,296-foot-high granite block pau-nh-acugua (high, pointed peak). The Portuguese, after colonizing Brazil, changed the name to PÃ£o dâ€™AÃ§Ãºcar, meaning sugar loaf. They did it for two reasons: one, it rhymed with the original Indian name; and two, its shape reminded them of the conical loaves in which refined sugar was sold. Though not as tall and lush with trees as Corcovado, the number of tourists it attracts is quite as large. One advantage it has over Corcovado is its location: once on its highest point, one is able to appreciate how mountains covered with luxuriant forests on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other enhance the beauty of Rio de Janeiro.

Transportation from the foot of the Sugar Loaf Mountain to its top is by Italian-made cable cars. Riding them is a joy. People prefer to visit the mountain just before sunset, when the granite block and the city below it glisten in the evening sun. They hang around there long after sunset to watch another glistening spectacle: the samba performed by colorfully-costumed dancers at the famous nightclub atop the Sugar Loaf.

After enjoying everything around for some time, we took the cable car back to the foot of the mountain, where our bus was waiting for us. On our way back to the hotel, as we were riding along the beach, I took another look at the petite mountain. â€œTo the Portuguese, it might have looked like a conical loaf,â€ I said to myself. â€œTo me, it looks more like a circumcised penis, when the man is lying down, looking at the ceiling, longing to be with his loved one.â€ I dared not say that to our Brazilian tour guide.

(To be continued)

(M.P. Prabhakaran can be reached at prabha@eastwestinquirer.com)

4)
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(about the author) An Indian Goes Around the World â€“ I (Capitalism Comes to Maoâ€™s Mausoleum)http://dlatimes.com/article.php?id=40126

Hunchback and sugar loaf: Two tourist attractions in Rio de Janeiro (Travel with MP Prabhakaran)