Long story short, our trip back to the city from the Christ the Redeemer statue involved splitting our group into two different groups for riding the train down. This involved a lot of time waiting for the second group. Insert lots and lots of singing and dancing for the first group with Brazilians and other instant-friends.
Then insert another tremendous amount of time waiting for a city bus to take us back near to our hostel.
When we left the bus stop, we made it halfway before seeing our fellow hostel-mates, the Dallas Shepherd's Cafe group, just singing on the sidewalk. We decided to join in and meanwhile, we heard sirens off in this distance on the opposite side of the avenue that was by where we were.
Minutes later, the sirens could be heard again. We could tell there was a motorcade of security and several vehicles being escorted. Some of us run over to the street and I wasn't totally paying attention but later figured out that this could possibly be Pope Francis because who else would be enough of a dignitary to merit this sort of escort at 9PM at night?
Well, as soon as I get over to the street, my group was already yelling that they saw Pope Francis waving out the window of his car wearing his papal white. I didn't get there in time to catch it on video but I did catch the tail end of his motorcade. Oh well...
But! How cool is that!? We were the only pilgrims on that street at that time and for him to pass by at that moment was a very unique experience. Besides, it must have been nice for him to see us because while we were watching the news during dinner, it seemed like the last thing he did was escape protestors standing outside of whatever federal building he was at when meeting with Brazil's president.
Either way, even though I missed seeing him with my own eyes, I know I'll get to see him very soon!
Like...on Copacabana Beach later today (Tues).
- JD
