Rio

We are back on the ship after a little side trip off the ship to Iguazu Falls.  It will take a bit to get caught up on this blog.  I’m afraid the photos will be limited as we did not get additional free internet minutes when the second leg of this cruise started and they take up a lot of minutes to upload.  On a previous B2B (back-to-back) cruise we received a whole new set of minutes with the 2^nd leg but I guess it depends on the ship’s internet manager.

 Rio de Janeiro (River of January) is commonly referred to simply as Rio. It is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro and is the second largest city in Brazil. It was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1815 during the Portuguese colonial era and from 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation. Rio is nicknamed A Cidade Maravilhosa (The Marvelous City). Rio de Janeiro is famous for its natural settings, its carnival celebrations, samba, Bossa Nova and hotel -lined tourist beaches, such as Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. Two of its most famous landmarks in addition to the beaches are the giant statue of Christ, known as Christ the Redeemer ('Cristo Redentor') atop Corcovado Mountain and Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car. The population of the city which occupies an area of 456.5 sq miles is about 6,100,000. The population of the greater metropolitan area is estimated at 11 to 13.5 million. Residents of the city are known as Cariocas. Rio de Ja-neiro is home to the largest Portuguese population outside of Lisbon in Portugal.

The ship overnights here in Rio but since our plans were to leave the ship on day 2 and fly to Iguazu Falls, we had a whirlwind 8-hour tour to try to see as much as possible in a short time.  Being part of a small private tour enabled us to accomplish our wish of seeing Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf in spite of immense crowds and intense heat and humidity.

Our first stop was at the Grupo Coracao Divino De Jesus church.  It looks like a pyramid with a flat top on the outside.  Inside there is the most beautiful stained glass windows that stretch all the way to the ceiling.

The classic tourist photo pose

One of the view decks at Christ the Redeemer

We then headed to Corcovado Mountain where we had timed tickets to view the Art-deco style Christ the Redeemer statue.  The timed tickets worked out well as we were headed up the mountain on the train just 18 minutes after our time window.  Once we disembarked the electric rail train, we climbed 220 steps to the base of the statue.  It was awesome.  The crowds were huge and we had to elbow our way to the viewing platform to get a magnificent view.  The sun was behind the statue so it wasn’t the best time of the day to photograph it.

The 125-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer, now named as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, can be used as a navigation mark. It sits on Corcovado Mountain, which at 2,330 feet, is the highest point of this massive city.

 

Another icon that is famous in Rio, is Sugar Loaf Mountain, 1,300 feet high.  It got its name as it resembles the sugarcane buildings used to process sugar.  A ride in the gondola up to the top provided us with stunning views of Rio and its famous white sand beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches. We didn’t have time to actually visit the beaches.

Again it was very, very crowded.  We knew to expect this in Rio, and especially at Carnaval time.  We ran out of tour time and headed back to the ship.  We had another tour planned for the evening hours so we anxiously watched the time as the bus crawled through the Rio traffic.

Once back at the port, we found our daily runs to be beneficial as we needed to run the half mile down the dock to reach our ship.  We arrived at 7:31 pm and thought we could clean up, relax a bit and have something to eat before meeting up with our “Rio Nite” group in 45 minutes.  WRONG!  At 7:43 our group leader called our room and said we needed to be downstairs in 2 minutes!  During our time back on the ship we only had time to shower and change clothes.  We grabbed a Panini from the International Café on the way off the ship and away we went to experience a little bit of Rio Carnaval at night.

We did not have tickets to the famous Sambadome where Samba School dancers compete.  Tickets inside to see the schools perform cost about $400 per person; $700 if you took the ship’s excursion.  We just couldn’t opt for that.  So instead, our guide took us to the staging area for the schools where they assemble in preparation to perform in the Sambadome.  We walked around the outside and just people watched.  We went into a building that had bands playing and people samba dancing.  Our friendly, young guide, Marconi, saw to it that we got out onto the floor and danced!  He said, “To samba dance, just stomp your foot like you are killing a cockroach, then squish it, and shake your bottom.”  It was fun.

Our tour group and the Princess of Portugal

Back outside the Sambadome, we watched the dancers leave after their competition.  They were more than happy to stop and pose for a photo.  In fact, everyone was very happy and having a great time.

Our heads hit the pillows that night at about 2:00 am.  Exhausted, but glad we were able to experience a little bit of Rio at Carnaval time.

The next morning we left the ship and flew to Iguazu Falls.