RIO DE JANEIRO - WOW

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This was to be a one of the highlights of our trip and it did not disappoint.

WOW from the moment we opened the curtains as we entered the harbour to Rio de Janeiro till we returned to the ship at just after nine at night was a day to remember.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful harbour cities in the world , its rich backdrop of mountains, sandy beaches, lush vegetation and the South Atlantic Ocean form a dramatic vista in a league of its own.

We sailed in at just before 7am and were greeted firstly with views of Corcavado (Christ the Redeemer) followed by the famous Copacabana beach and just for good measure the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain. And we hadn't even had breakfast!!! Coupled with the fact it was glorious sunshine at 24c rising to nearly 30c during the day. One of the downsides was that the humidity was about 80%.

Our tour was to take us up Sugar Loaf Mountain by cable car, a typical Brazilian lunch in a Churrascarias (Steakhouse) serving charcoaled grilled meat and a train ride up Corcavado to see Christ the Redeemer. In between were a sight seeing tour of the city to include the sights of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and Botafogo Bay.

Rio is the second largest in Brazil and was the capital until 1960. It's official population in put at over 5 million, but a more realistic figure is more likely to be over 10 million with the slums and favelas. The government are trying to deal with the slums and favelas but drug and gun culture seems to rule these areas and they are struggling to reduce these populations.
There is a huge amount of building and regeneration going on, particularly in the dock area where we berthed. It is Olympic year here in July, most of the games will take place on the city limits and so we saw nothing of the building work for the preparation of the games. To speculate whether they will be ready or not is a matter of hearsay, our guides opinion was that 'maybe they would be!!'

One of the problems with cruising is that you are not alone in sharing these visits to tourist attractions, the fact that it was a Sunday and two other cruise ships had berthed before us was going to make it a 'challenging' day.

I'm not going to bore people about the queues, probable lack of coordination between the agencies and the cruise liners. It's a business after all, and bums on seats is what matters.

Our first port of call was Sugar Loaf Mountain (Pao de Acucar), a huge granite rock at the entrance to the bay rising to 1293 ft. The summit is reached by cable car through 2 stages and at the top you are rewarded with superb views across the city and its beaches. There is also a view to Christ the Redeemer which comes and goes in the cloud.
Yes as I've already pointed out, there were queues, to get up the mountain and to get down and it did take a little of the enjoyment out of it, but the views are spectacular and there were some distractions. Like the mountain climbers scaling the first granite hill (Morro da Urca 715ft) - the things some people will do to avoid paying an entrance fee or the buzzards, frigate birds and occasional Condor using the thermals to soar over the mountain. Once down we were expecting a trip for lunch, however because of timings (our train up Corcavado was booked for mid afternoon) lunch was put off until after our trip to see Christ the Redeemer.

Cue dissent in the ranks!!!!
Ranging from 'we will miss our dinner' or 'what about the show' or 'we were meant to back at 6.30'.

Onwards and upwards, after a tour to the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches (beautiful) and the not so beautiful Botofogo Bay beach which you can have to yourself because it is so highly polluted.

Arriving at the terminal for the train to Corcavado (Hunchback) Mountain, we boarded the train, a Swiss made funicular cog train which runs every 30 minutes along the two and a half mile route.
Christ the Redeemer sits at the summit at 2310ft in the Parc Nacional da Tijaci. The statue was completed in 1931 and is 125 ft high and weighs 1145 tons.
It was busy, hot and humid, we only had about 30 minutes at the top, it wasn't shrouded in mist but it was not to be missed.

Waiting in the queue to go back down there was still mumbling of dissent within the groups. We were one of eight coach loads who had opted for this tour and about three of us came together at this point.

Returning to the base it was off to the Churrascarias for our late lunch (6pm), some of our group wanted to go back to the ship - soon quashed as most wanted to eat at an authentic Brazilian restaurant - well we did!!!

The restaurant was very busy not just with our groups but with locals out for their Sunday meal. The process of eating at one of these Steakhouses is you get your salad and then the waiters come round with skewers of meat and carve whatever you require. And when I say meat there is a lot of it, you don't want to be a vegetarian in this place. There were sirloin steak,skirt steak, rib steaks, pork ribs, lamb, chicken and sausages all done on the charcoal grill and as I said carved from the skewers, as little or as much as you like, then they came round for seconds.

After this, sated and nourished we left to go back to the ship, via another beach to see the sunset, beautiful colours with clear skies it was why people come to the beaches on masse.

It was turned 9pm when we got back to the ship, we didn't sail till 11.30pm, so a quick wash and brush up for a well earned beer and a walk round the upper deck to see Christ the Redeemer all lit up and a beautiful full moon.

Onwards to Montevideo

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