Dois Irmaos

Ever since my first visit to Brasil nearly 10 years ago, I've wanted to climb the Dois Irmaos mountain - it's the spectacular duo of peaks that stand tall to the right of Ipanema beach (facing the ocean) ... millions of tourists take awesome pictures of this pair of solid rock mountain tops with crazy beautiful sunsets from Ipanema beach and Apoador rock.  I've been living in Brasil for almost 7 year - I finally can say that I made it to the top.

 On the way up ... we already noticed the clouds moving in ... or maybe there were there all along :-)

 Rocinha - the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro with a population of close to 1 million people.

 It is crazy to see the mosaic of houses built on top of houses built on top of other houses.

 The proximity between rich and poor is ridiculous ... US$15million mansions no more than a block away from "shanty-town BRZ".

 And just as we arrived at the top - the cloud cover closed in.  This was the last picture taken where I could still identify Ipanema beach ... 30 seconds later ...

... pure whiteness!!!

 Three colleagues from BP joined me on the adventure ... 

 This photo will one day be preserved in the historical archives as "The Inspiration for Christo-II on Dois Irmaos Mountain"

As we descended, we broke back beneath the cloud cover ... pretty cool stuff!