TUESDAY, MARCH 1 - Rio de Janerio, Brazil Day 1

Up at 5:45AM! Even with sunrise at 5:30AM, this is way too early! Why are we up? Oh, yes. We are sailing into the harbor of Rio de Janeiro and Terry Breen is doing a blow by blow over the old blower (PA system). She is already on the blower when we step out on the balcony and see Copacabana beach in front of us

and Sugar Loaf Mountain off to the starboard.

The street lights are still on along the road in front of the Copacabana Palace Hotel and they begin to wink out as we watch.

The Captain does a complete 360, spinning the ship on its axis so all the balcony watchers can see. We have, by this time, gone up on deck 12 so we have a panoramic view of the action.

We now turn north and slide by under the brow of Sugar Loaf

and turn to port toward the harbor entrance. We see the old defensive fortifications at the mouth of the bay, duck as one airplane after another howls overhead toward a landing at Santo Dumont regional airport, enjoy a view of the light green, fairy-tale castle of Ilha Fiscal, see a substantial part of the Brazilian Navy, including a small aircraft carrier

and finally dock at the cruise passenger terminal.

We have an all day tour today to see "The Best of Rio" and board our bus about 8:45AM after a long walk through the terminal and out to where the buses are parked. By 9AM we are on our way out into the chaotic traffic of a Rio rush hour. The streets are insane and the drivers are worse.

Our first goal is to take the cable cars to the top of Sugar Loaf. While driving there, the guide provides the usual running commentary on what we are seeing. The trip can’t be over 10 miles but it takes most of an hour to get to the base station for the cable cars. The bus can’t park so we bail out and follow the guide into the cable car station. She already has our tickets and, perhaps, a reservation for a particular car time.

Our wait for a car is only a few minutes and we load up and, with a bounce and a jerk, are on our way up the 650 foot climb to the middle station. The ride takes about three minutes and is very smooth. We get out and move on to board the next car for the final 1,000 foot climb to the top of Sugar Loaf.

At the top, we are given 45 minutes to take our pictures and explore the numerous shops. The view, if you have not yet been to the top of Corcovado (the hunchback) to see the Christ statue, is spectacular. It was cloudy and spitting rain earlier in the morning but the sun has come out here on Sugar Loaf and the views along the coast are awesome!

Corcovado, with the Christ statue, is still swathed in clouds but at just the right moment, we see the statue, or most of it, through a brief break in the clouds and take a few photos.

 Hopefully this will not be all we see of it but we have, at least, seen it.
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Carolyn, with Dick’s help, spies and buys a 10.55 caret, unmounted, semiprecious stone, a Citrine, to add to her collection. It is really quite pretty! After doing our thing, we meet the guide and begin the return journey down the mountain to board the bus.

It is nearly noon and lunch is next on our agenda. We drive for another hour to an area called Barra to the Oasis Churrascaria for lunch. During this drive we see, spilling up (is that possible?) the hillside, several of the slum/shanty towns for which Rio is infamous.

We drive along the boulevard fronting Copacabana Beach

and Ipamea Beach.

It is sunny now and the people are out on the beaches in force. We are told they are all tourists as the residents are all working!

Oasis is one of the restaurants where various types of grilled meats are brought around and sliced to order. There is a huge salad bar to start and then the meats start coming.

Most are good, some better than others, and we eat our fill. A bottle of water is included and anything else is extra. Here is where they make their money. Cokes and beer are $5 and a glass of wine is $10. Dick has a draft beer and Carolyn a coke. Dick pays with reals, the local currency, and gets off for $8.63 instead of $10.

Back on the bus around 2PM, we now head for the cog-wheel, funicular train station to take the 20 minute ride up to the top of Corcovado Mountain. On the way we pass by the line pf Royal Palms

that are 90 feet tall and were planted in 1808 and some world class graffiti.

We have a reservation for the 2:40PM train and we just make it. We literally run the last 100 yards with the guide urging us on and cut in front of a long line of people waiting to go up. At 2:38PM we are standing on the platform and at 2:40PM the train pulls up and we get on. The two cars are full to capacity and quite cramped.

The ride up is through the Tijuca Nature Preserve and is, like all such trains, quite steep. We stop once to allow the descending train to pass and again to let some obnoxious, local musicians (being generous there) on to serenade us. Too bad this is their day job! At the top, the train is at a 30 degree angle and we get off and walk to the elevators. These are small and only hold six passengers and one elevator operator. He has a very difficult job as there are only two buttons; up and down.

Out of the elevators, we walk to the first of two escalators and after our ride up these we are standing on top of the world. There used to be 296 steps up!  Escalators are good!  Sugar Loaf and its views are an afterthought when you have been to the top of Corcovado Mountain! As mentioned earlier, the mountain was covered in clouds this morning

but it is now clear and what a treat.

It would have been a shame to have come to Rio and not seen these spectacular views.

As usual, we are up here with several hundred of our closest friends but everyone is congenial and allows others to get their photos made.

We actually purchase a pin for Jack, a tiny copy of the statue, at the entrance to the shrine in the base of the statue.

We rejoin our guide at the appointed time and board the next train for our descent.

Back on the street below, the bus is waiting for us and we head for the ship. Our tour has taken 7.5 hours and we have basically seen two sights and had lunch. What does that tell you about Rio’s traffic??!!
Back on the ship, we clean up and go to dinner at 6:30PM as we have another tour tonight that begins at 8:50PM. At that time, we board a bus to take us to a Samba show and folkloric. This turns out to be more fun than the Tango show in Buenos Aires. Perhaps that is a result of the rather scanty dress and amazing costumes of the performers. Talk about buns of steel!

We do not leave the show until shortly after midnight but we are in bed by 1AM. It was a nice
first day in Rio.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28 - Buzios, Brazil

We sail north around Rio during the night and wake up in the resort town of Buzios, north of Rio. It supposedly has 23 beautiful beaches on the five mile peninsula. We are scheduled for another schooner ride and beach swim this morning so we have a light breakfast and are in the Compass Rose when it opens. We find out that, unlike the schooner tour in Parati, we will have to go ashore in the tender to meet the tour and then will be dropped off at the end on shore again. That means we will have to lug our gear in and out of the tender twice and have to waste time getting a tender back to the ship to drop our gear before catching yet another tender to go into town. Well, it is very overcast this morning and the water is choppy. All that in and out up and down just doesn’t seem worth it so we turn the tickets back in and skip the whole tour part. This is just fine with Dick because he is not really a beach person. Caroloyn is but her knees are rebelling at all the stairs and ladders so it is OK.

We leave our swim wear on, in case we get the chance to swim and wait about 20 minutes for the tour tenders to leave and then head to town on the first open tender.

Buzios was made famous in the 1960's by Brigitte Bardot. It was her favorite hide away. It is very popular with the people of Brazil and the jet set. There are many beautiful homes up in the hills above the town

 

The town is to the right and is full of little clothing shops, cafés and bars.

Never have people spent so much for 6 square inches of two pieces of cloth that is called a bathing suit and then paid a fortune for a fancy top to use as a cover up!

Any way, we get to town and walk a little ways to the left to the statue of Brigitte Bardot and play tourist and get some pictures.

We have to wait our turn. Parts of the statue stays polished from all the tourist rubbing on it.

There is also some art work out in the water of three fishermenn pulling their boats in. The men are on a sand bar when the tide is out, but it was in when we are there.

Then we walk back into town

and look for a pin. Jack is out of luck today, but Carolyn finds a couple of things in one of the few shops in town with A/C. There are two other ships in town with us today and the little village is very crowded! It isn’t as nice as the other two places we have been. It is very touristy...nothing really special at all about the town. Plus, it is terribly hot and humid and looks like it could rain at any minute! I am sure the water and beaches away from the town are nice...from what we can see of them, they look pretty. There are water taxis that will take you there and back for less than $6, but that is not really appealing to us since it isn’t sunny.

We finish our shopping and catch the tender back to the ship.

Back on board, since this is the last beach day for a while and we have some really stinky damp things from the last three days, Dick snags a washer and we do two loads and get all the beach wear cleaned up and hanging around the room to hopefully dry out some time soon!

After lunch Carolyn goes to the afternoon movie and Dick works on the blog. We are so far behind. At 4:30PM he goes to Trivia and their team doesn’t win. But, several players went on the morning schooner tour and said we made a good call in not going. It seems the ship had two schooners and had 130 on one and 30 on the other. They said that by the time you got into the water and swam close enough to shore to see something they were calling you back to the schooner. Sounds like we didn’t miss anything!

It is the farewell party tonight for this segment and there are a couple of good dishes on the menu too. Carolyn falls asleep while reading so we miss the farewell party but get to dinner about 7:15PM. It is one of the really good menus, Charlotte of crab meat, avocado and mango, creamy seafood bisque and Chateaubriand...hmmmm good!

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 - Ilha Grande, Brazil

Ilha Grande is 120 miles south of Rio de Janeiro. It is just 40 miles north of Parati, where we were yesterday. We sailed out into the Atlantic and made a big box to fill the time. According to information provided to us, the island boasts over 200 beaches. The island is in pristine condition due to its unusual history. First it was a pirates’ lair, then a leper colony and, finally, a prison for some of Brazil’s most violent and deranged criminals. All that remains of those days are some half buried stone foundations, but the island’s unsavory reputation kept developers at bay for a long time and Brazil made most of the island a national Park. Consequently, beautiful tropical beaches and virgin Atlantic rain forest abound and there are only a few settlements on the island .

The island appears to be very rugged and the hillsides are covered in lush forests. It is bright and sunny when we arrive and we can see the small village of Vila do Abraao just across the bay. It was a sleepy fishing village until 30 years ago. Despite all the new stores and bars,

the palm studded beachfront town

with its tidy white church is still picturesque.

Except for Abraao’s lone garbage truck, fire engine and police vehicle, cars are not allowed in town so the only transportation is by foot or boat.

The village comprises a few dirt roads and everyone seems to congregate near the beachfront.

There is lots of small boat activity as this is a favorite place to play on the weekends.

There are no tours today, thank the Good Lord, so we have breakfast and head ashore to explore. The tenders are docking at a floating pier that is tied to a small wooden dock. There is a wooden ramp thatwe have to use that is sliding back and forth on the wooden dock. It is really dangerous especially since there is another ship’s group using the floating pier. Our tender arrives just as the other one does and we are caught up in a river of some 200 people trying to get across this narrow moving ramp!

We are prepared for a swim and have some Brazilian currency just in case. We explore a block or two back from the beach promenade on several streets and find two pins for Jack’s collection as well as a canvass sun hat for Carolyn. Dick finds a T-shirt with dive information for the area but it comes only in black so he passes.

We walk half a kilometer to the right of the pier where we landed and find a beach where some people are swimming/soaking and one of our ship’s compliment is spread out under a tree on a beach towel reading. Carolyn, lover of all things beachy that she is, goes for a wade and picks up a few shells. Dick sits on the low seawall and people watches and manages a few photos that may be fun to see.

Carolyn cleans up a bit and we walk a further half kilometer or so along the coast looking for a beach we saw from the tender but it does not appear. We actually enter the national park but the only way you know it is from a sign and a man sitting in a little hut, in some sort of uniform,

while napping in the heat. The national park is home to some exotic birds, monkeys, interesting waterfalls all of which we don't see, but we do see some colorful flowers.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any information on the hiking trails plus it is really hot so we back track before we go far enough to find the big beach. Speaking of heat, it is hot as hades in the sun. But, if you can find shade and a breeze it is not too bad. Of course, by now we have sweated down our clothes and a breeze does feel quite cool to us.

We walk back along the beachfront looking at houses (Everyone has a shower in the front yard!), signs, people and stuff.

We find some of the local police vehicles.

Having now officially been there and done that, we board the tender and return to the ship

where we just make it into the Veranda Restaurant for a bite of lunch before they close at 2PM. We spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool and working on the blog and pictures. We are really getting behind! Dick goes to Trivia, but once again it is not a winning day.

Ray hashis nice Sunday service at 5:15PM then we stay in the Horizon Lounge for drinks, but about 6PM the Bingo lady shows up, they really need to rethink having bingo in the bar at that time of day! We move out on the open deck off the Lounge for awhile then go to our travel group’s Farwel party for this segment. It is held in the Star’s Lounge this time...a nice place for the private parties. On to dinner and bed...we are really tired after two days in the heat.