This is a warning to everyone who is planning to hike up to the Christ Statue “Cristo Redentor” in Rio de Janeiro.
We have received some messages, where people, who did the hike to Cristo Redentor have been robbed in the most absurd way. The robbers wait for the hikers to come by and force them to hand over everything they have: money, phone, camera… anything valuable.
The most terrible thing is that the robbers keep the people there for hours. They wait for more hikers to come by and rob every single one of them. This way they rob dozens of people, sometimes even more than hundred within a few hours.
Travellers are not even being warned about these incidents. The tourism industry is afraid of losing incoming travellers. Especially since in the earlier years and the pacification efforts of favelas in Rio seemed to become a safer place to travel. Now that the Olympics and World Cup is over, the marvelous city is becoming what it used to be: Owned by drug cartels and corruption.
WARNING: If you end up in a robbery in Rio, always do what the robbers want and tell you. Never try to be a hero. Robbers in Brazil have very little to lose and are often under the influence of drugs. They are willing to use brutal force and we cannot think of a single item or amount of money which is worth to take the risk!
If you want to visit the Cristo Redentor we strongly recommend to choose an alternative way. You can take the cable car or take a bus.
One Travelgott Tells us his own Experience
“This was the most terrifying moment I had in my entire life. I was walking up to the Christ Statue with a group of people who I met at the hostel. What seemed to become a fun day, turned out to be the worst in our lives. They threatened us with knives and wanted everything we got.
I luckily saved my pictures from my phone on Dropbox the day before, so I just lost some money and the phone itself. But you know what? I would happily change the photos to delete this experience from my memory.
I was here in Rio about 3 years ago. Everything was fine and I felt pretty safe all the time. But this is just crazy. They kept us there for 2.5 hours. Other people who hiked by got robbed one by one. There was even one Brazilian hiking with a group of foreigners who started to argue with them. They just hit him very badly and pushed him to the ground. We waited there until they decided they had enough and left.
We told at the hostel that we were going to do the tour. But they didn’t mention at all that these things happened over the past months. In some way I even understand that. People like me, I fell in love with this country last time I was here. But these things keep tourists out of the country. I am going to travel further South to Brazil, to Florianópolis, where I think it’s much safer.”
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