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Published: March 7th 2017
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Christ the Redeemer Statue
on Hunchback Mountain - Rio This is day-2 of Rio. It was our last overnight in-port for this cruise. It was a nice smooth night without the ship rocking or anything. As explained yesterday, Janet did not have a tour today, but David still had to report to the Fusion Lounge at 7:00. He got up early and had a light breakfast in the Horizon Court and then brought a breakfast sandwich, chocolate donut, and a cup of tea back to the cabin for Janet. She has her sandwich and then followed doctor’s orders and went back to bed. She got a good restful morning and by the time David got back she was feeling much better. Maybe it was partly due to the sage advice she’s received from Stephanie about following doctor’s orders and you would recover more quickly.
David’s tour left he ship with his group and the tour began pretty much on-time at 7:30. The bus had to sit for a while and our guide pointed out the highlights of the pier. Actually this used to be an old commercial pier with broken down warehouses, and an expressway running through the area. They dug a tunnel, removed the highway, are
refurbishing the pier itself and converting the warehouses into individual ship terminals. Right now there is only one operational, so we might have a short walk or a long one to our ship. But they are making progress and by next cruise season things should be much improved (just a little late to help us). Just outside the port is a building with “artistic graffiti and it is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest continue wall of graffiti in the world.
The tour company had someone at the tram station for the Christ the Redeemer Statue. That person said there were short lines at that time, so we did the statue first and the other items later. We drove fairly directly to the tram station with him pointing out a few items of interest on the way, but we were eager to be ahead of the big crowds. The statue is 38 meters high. It was built on-site and is made of solid concrete (not hollow). The statue was started in 1922 and was inaugurated in 1931. The Catholic Church apparently paid a sizeable portion of the cost. It is 38 meters high
Looking Down
from Christ the Redeemer Statue (including the base) and can be seen most anywhere in Rio.
In 1822 the emperor liked to go up to the top of the mountain for the view and to cool off during the hot spells. He originally constructed a horse-drawn “train” to get up there. The route is through the Tijuca National Park and so nothing else can be built around the statue. In 1888 the first cog-train was installed and the same method (although improved several times) has been used ever since. This is called Hunchback Mountain because from the sea the string of mountains looks like a man lying down and this is his hunched back.
We were dropped off at the street and a short walk up a ramp lead to the station. Our guide bought tickets for everyone and we were assigned to the 8:20 train (the 8:00 train was full and just leaving). We had to stand and wait, but we boarded the 8:20. There is an aisle down the length of the car, with 3 seats on one side and 2 seats on the other. There are 3 seats facing the opposite direction as the 2, so
World Record Graffiti Wall
near where our ship was docked David got on quickly and got a window seat in the forward facing 3-seat section. The train was full (apparently it always is) with 60 people in David’s car and 60 in the other car. So a full train is 120. Three trains per hour makes 360 people going up to the top every hour. This provided some degree of crowd control although non-tours did not have anyone organizing them to meet for departure at a particular time. Daylight now is about 7:00 to 7:00, so 12 hours times 360 people make a maximum number of visitors a less than 4500.
Anyway, David rode the cog-train tram up to the top. He could either wait in a very long line for a very small elevator to take him to the next level, or climb 200 steps to that point. Being impatient he climbed the steps. That gets you to the point where the bathrooms and snack bar are located, as well as escalators going up/down to the base of the statue. From there everyone had a good view of the statue and also of Rio – except it was cloudy today and the view below was hazy
Looking up at Statue
from the Crown Princess at best. We were fortunate because it became even cloudier later and those tours were probably pretty disappointed. Our group was given 30 minutes to explore and takes photos and then we were to meet at the tram line to go back down the mountain. In theory we could see the ship from the statue because we had seen it the other direction yesterday, but conditions just didn’t work out. Anyway, there was a 20 minute wait for our downward tram. This was the first time there had been anything to sit on since getting out of the tram. Bottom line is that the tour would have been fairly tiring even if Janet’s foot had been in perfect condition. It is sad that she missed the statue, but it’s good that she followed instructions and let her foot feel better.
The group boarded our bus again and drove around Rio. Today is Monday and the kids have gone back to school and the city is finally over with Carnival. Our guide said that it officially lasts only on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Unofficially it runs all the way through yesterday. But the streets
Sugarloaf
seen from our ship while leaving Rio were cleared and our bus was able to drive around without obstructions. We drove through the streets of Ipanema and Copacabana, and along the whole length of the beaches. We parked almost exactly the same place as yesterday and everyone was able to get out and walk in the sand again today. Except this time there were more waves rolling onto the beach, so our guide predicted a more bumpy evening when we got out in the ocean.
We boarded the bus again and drove back to the pier. David came back about 12:30 and found Janet was feeling quite a bit better. We went up to the Lido deck and had hot dogs and fries, with some ice cream and peach cobbler. Then we went down to the Promenade Deck and sat in some of the couches indoors and allowed our steward to clean the cabin. The cloudy weather may have made it cooler than yesterday, but it still said 30C (86F) at noon. It probably got even warmer than that later in the day.
We spend some time reading and then went back to the cabin about 3:00. Sail-away was scheduled at
Copacabana Beach
seen from our ship while leaving Rio 4:00 and there was a nice crowd of people on the top decks. David took some pictures as we sailed out of Rio. We went around Sugarloaf Mountain and past Copacabana Beach. It gave us a different point of view for everything we’ve seen the past two days. Meanwhile Janet followed doctor’s orders and elevated her foot and rested in the cabin. After leaving Rio, David brought down some snacks and we had a little wine in the cabin before going to dinner.
For dinner Janet had a watermelon appetizer with mascarpone, shrimp cocktail and veal scaloppini. Dessert was cherry jubilee. David had shrimp cocktail, a small sample of ravioli, and the Austrian Special (beef with cabbage & potatoes). For dessert he had a butterscotch sundae. Janet opted to rest in the cabin and David went to the theater to see a comedian - he was alright but not great.
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Jerry and Joyce
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Loved the picture!!
I loved the picture of the statue from a distance! I want to see it someday....my knee hurts just thinking about those 200 steps. Sounds like you had a good day. Glad Janet is feeling better. We had high 60 degree weather with storms toward evening. We have piles of clothing waiting to be pressed and packed.....got our taxes done a little earlier than usual...and starting to plan for last minute chores before our cruise. Joyce