Undoubtedly one of the Monkey's best photos, the open-armed Cristo Redentor statue is rather unintentionally dwarfed by the Monkey's own grandiose smile. Both of them have a lot to be happy about. Atop the gorgeous 709 meter Corcovado Mountain, immortalized by Antonio Carlos Jobim's song "Corcovado" and scenes in Marcel Camus' 1959 film "Black Orpheus," the view that Christ (and in this case the Monkey) enjoy over Rio de Janeiro is unrivalled in the entire world.

Few cities combine mountains, sea, and sun quite like Rio, and there are no places better for taking it all in than from atop the Corcovado. Adding to the beauty, from sites all around Rio, you can spot Jesus watching you (or maybe he's eyeing the "dental floss" bikini girls on Copacabana beach) from high above. At night, the 38 meter statue, developed by engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and sculptor Paul Landowski and erected in 1921, frequently floats in a cloud of fluttering bugs, adding immensely to the wonder of this world-class sight.

The Monkey peers through the haze at one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world, Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema. Like many aspects of Rio culture, the Atlantic-fronting bairro with its long arch of sandy beach was commemorated in a bossa nova song by Antonio Carlos Jobim. "A Garota da Ipanema" ("the Girl from Ipanema") summed up the joy of fleeting love (or at least lust) at first sight, as well as the carefree attitude of Rio's beachcombing masses. The Monkey can attest to the fact that Jobim was perfectly on the mark: if you go to Ipanema's beach, chances are you will spot a garota or a rapaz (boy) that transfixes you, who's "tall and tan and young and lovely" and whose walk is like "a samba that sways so cool and sways so gently that when she/he passes, each one she/he passes goes 'ahhhhh…'." Everyone deserves to gaze upon a girl (or boy) from Ipanema once in a lifetime.

Another view of the Cristo Redentor, from the Monkey's February 1998 visit to Rio.

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