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Published: January 25th 2011
Rio was very, very hot, but lots of fun. As we sailed in early in the morning, it was hard to believe we were actually seeing Sugar Loaf and Corcovado Mountains, for real! The "Christ the Redeemer" statue was slightly obscured by clouds, but we could see it was there. We had the premier berth in port, being much closer to the terminal than the three huge ships that were there, too. We took a bus tour which took us to the station for the 20 minute funicular ride up Corcovado. On the way up we passed some very weird looking trees that had huge fruit growing not from their branches, but from the their trunks. We found out they are called "Jack Fruit" -- at least that is what it sounded like and will, I'm sure, impress my fruit-addicted nephew, Jack. When we reached the end of the rail line, we took an elevator, then two outdoor escalators up to the base of the Jesus statue. It is huge! And the crowds up there were huge, too. The views of the city and beaches were fantastic because by that time the clouds had disappeared. Then it was down, down, down
and time to drive past the famous beaches. Since it was Saturday they were really packed. First we saw Impanema (of "The Girl From" fame) then Copacabana. Everyone was strutting around in bathing suits no matter what shape or size they were. There must have been well over 200,000 people on each beach, with red and yellow umbrellas practically covering all the sand. With temps near 100, it did not look like any place we wanted to hang out...especially with our as yet untanned bodies and, let's face it, advanced years. We were quite happy to get back to the ship and have a late lunch.
That evening a group of Carnaval dancers performed their show for us. The costumes were unbelievable! I've never seen so many feathers and sparkles covering so little skin! It was a rather shocking evening for some of the passengers, but we just sat back and enjoyed it.
Sunday morning we decided to try out a tip we had been given at the Captain's table. H. Stern, the ubiquitous jeweler of South America and the Caribbean, has a free shuttle from the port to their headquarters in Impanema. We took the ride and
then the mandatory tour which was really very fascinating, showing all the Brazillian gemstones in their rough and polished forms. The retail jewelry was astounding...especially the necklaces that had thousands of individual gold feathers hanging from them. I tried on a bracelet that was "only" $2500, but I wondered where in Nisswa I could wear it. So, we didn't buy it. Ha-ha. Then the concierge at H. Stern asked us where we wanted to go next, so we got a free limo ride to the cable car station for Sugar Loaf. Somehow we navigated our way through the crowds to the ticket booth, then miraculously found ourselves near the head of the queue for the ride. There were zillions of families there, all talking non-stop, all patiently shuffling along toward the cable car. The first car only takes you to the intermediate mountaintop. It is the second car that takes you to the top of Sugar Loaf. Both rides look very scary from the ground, being suspended from one mountain to the next, but actually weren't bad at all. Again we were lucky that the sky was clear so we got some terrific views. Coming down again, I thought I
may never have been so hot in my life. Sweat was just pouring down my face and back. The cars are not air-conditioned, they just have a couple of tiny open windows, and have 60 passengers jammed into them. We stopped and had cold drinks before we continued down to the base. Then we figured out how to hire a taxi to get us back to the ship. At 5:00 PM we set sail with wonderful views of the city and Copacabana as we headed out to sea.
Yesterday was a welcome day at sea. I washed clothes in the tiny laundry room...five washers and dryers for 850 passengers! In the afternoon there was a pantomine put on by some of the passengers and directed by a very famous English TV actress...who I've never heard of! A British pantomine turns out to be a very old, popular tradition and is completely different from an American one. First of all, there are words. The story is an odd take on a fairy tale, in our case Cinderella, with almost all the parts played by the opposite sex. So the prince is played by a woman, for example, and the ugly
step-sisters are men. There is great audience participation helped along by signs telling the audience what to say or do. (Laugh! Clap!) Everyone seemed to enjoy it plus we now are looking more closely at our fellow passengers to see who played the wicked stepmother or Cinderella.
Today was much cooler in the morning, so we walked our mile and sat outside. I got a little burned, but hope it will turn to tan quickly. Hugh has recovered from his cold and I haven't gotten it...yet. It was the Farewell Cocktail party tonight (half the passengers leave in Buenos Aires) so we were all dressed up again. We had a nice chat with the Other Mr & Mrs Watson. I like talking to her because her accent is so much like Hugh's...and I'm getting a little bit fed up with the hoity-toity English ones!
A bit of news from home: Mom just learned that my grandfather and Michelle Bachmann's grandfather were first cousins. OMG! We're related! How embarrassing!
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peter de koning
non-member comment
Rio
Dear Suzy and Hugh, It is so nice to read your stories. And so funny! We enjoyed them very much. It would be good to publish all your articles in a book, for a rainy day! When we were in Hastings last December we went to the panto Cinderella and enjoyed it very much. The ugly sisters were played by men. Enjoy your trip and we look forward to reading your stories again. Best wishes also from Clasien, Peter de Koning.