Christo on Corcovada

Sugar Loaf Scenics

PanAm Panoramas

Views from the top of Christ the Redeemer (on Corcovado) and Sugar Loaf Mountains. Our hotel is to the right of the cylindrical black tower. You can see how close it is to one of the main slum/ghetto areas.

Competition Chaos

About 2 hours before the women's all-around artistic gymnastics final. Click to enlarge.

Rio Recap

It's 20 minutes before the bus leaves for the venue...where to begin!
This is day 6 in Rio de Janerio. Certainly one of the more interesting starts to an international gig that I've been involved with!
Due to a contract/payment dispute between the PanAm Games Organizing Committee & the power company, the plug was pulled on the power at many venues (including our)! We finally got power the day before the competition was to begin and attemped to achieve 3 days of setup in 1 day!
Needless to say, we were not ready to go the next morning....but began our gymnastics coverage at 1pm (second session)....which went surprisingly well!
Rio is an enourmous city....a great of deal of poverty, and sprawling slums. Extensive crime is definitely something to be wary of. One of our crew came upon a dead body on the beach while jogging on her second morning here. People were just walking around it on the beach!
Saturday we began work at 645am...and got back to the hotel at 230am the next morning. The day after, however, our crew-call wasn't until 5pm, so a group of us spend most of the day swimming, body surfing, sipping coconuts and cliff diving...at Ipanema beach.
Here's a shot of Ipanema Beach and 2 pictures of the view from my room at the Intercontinental Hotel. More to come!