Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro · Travel Poster

Each poster comes with a letter home. Ella writes about the place, its hidden history, and the funny details that never makes it into the guidebooks.

Standing at the top of Corcovado mountain, this statue takes three to five lightning strikes a year, most of them harmless, though not always. A 2014 storm dislodged a finger entirely. The church keeps a stash of the original soapstone for repairs just like it, except the quarry it came from ran dry years ago, so every patch since has used stone that's a shade darker than the rest. Look closely enough at those hands and you're looking at the weather report of the last few decades.

This poster is an original exclusive illustration in watercolour and ink, exclusively painted for the Ella's Adventures travel poster series.

No frame included