5 Mar 2017 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Hello from Rio de Janeiro Brazil. You can add another new country to our ever-grown list. And to get the details out of the way, it was hot here today (38C – 100F). That is partly because Rio is as far south of the equator as Cabo San Lucas, Mexico is north. So we are getting closer and closer to the equator, which is always fairly warm.



The ship sailed slowly into the bay and nestled up alongside the pier just before 8:00 – as planned. We have two days in Rio, so we split our two main objectives and only planned to do one each day. That meant today’s 4-hour excursion was to gather at 8:30. We went to the Horizon Court for a light breakfast, expecting to be back from out tour about 1:00. That was the end of things following “the plan”. We and the others were all assembled and wearing our green stickers for the tour but the port police would not give clearance for anyone to leave the ship. Apparently they were being very studious and examined every passport to see that each person had indeed paid the appropriate fee to get a Brazilian Visa. The visa had been a pain to obtain and was pretty expensive and now was being an obstacle to our departures. We really wonder whether Brazil wants tourist to come spend money or not. The ship finally got cleared for people to leave at 11:30.



By the time everyone boarded the buses and we were underway, it was noon. The first thing that had to happen was that we had to switch drivers. We don’t know why but this driver drove off the pier and then someone else got on to drive the tour route. Weird! Maybe he had an afternoon date or something.



Carnival officially ended last Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Apparently in Rio it hangs on a lot longer and some of the streets were still blocked off for Carnival Parades. Our guide told us that her school had won the Carnival Samba contest last night and so they were celebrating that today. Anyway, we drove around town on slightly different routes and learned some stuff about Brazil and Rio.



This is the 5^th largest country in the world and largest in South America. There are 26 states in Brazil, plus the capital territory around Brasilia. There are about 6.5 M people in the city of Rio and 16 M altogether living in the Rio area. Rio was originally founded by the French back in the 16^th century but the Portuguese were really the dominant European population. By late in the 16^th century, they effectively drove the French away and it was a colony of Portugal until it became independent in 1825. The name comes from the original misconception that the bay was actually a river (Rio) and it was found on the first of January (Janeiro). There are sections of Rio (call Favelas) which are basically shantytowns. Our guide pointed some of them out to us and said that some are dangerous due to the criminal elements which live there but others are just poor people trying to make a better living than they could back in their home country. One strange thing we have discovered during our cruise – we have never once changed the clocks from Valparaiso all the way to Rio (they seem to all be in the same time zone).



Our first stopping point today was at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro. It has a long Portuguese name but we did not catch it. The church is very strangely shaped. It has an unattached bell tower. The church itself is about 80 meter high and nearly 100 meters wide. It has seating capacity for 22,000. It is shaped more like a 4-sided pyramid which is thought to be paying some respect to the Mayans of years ago. It has 4 floor-to-ceiling sets of stained glass windows, one on each side of the pyramid, each more than 200 feet long. It is fully open to a cross of clear window panels in the top of the ceiling, so it is a very airy and open setting. Outside there was a statue of John Paul II and one of Mother Teresa. The bus had to stop on the street and we had to walk up a long inclined driveway, So Janet stayed on the bus and observed it from outside while David went inside.



Next we drove through more of the town until we got to Copacabana Beach. Although the itinerary said we would visit that beach, we actually went to the adjacent Lemme beach instead. That was because there was still Carnival stuff on the streets immediately behind Copa Beach. It is actually a continuation of the same beach, but one is better known than the other. David got out and walked on the beach for a few minutes (Janet really doesn’t like sand). The sand is very soft and was quite warm. Since this is Sunday, there were lots and lots of people on the beach already. He took a few pictures and then we all got back on the bus again. Our guide said that beaches are so much of the life in Rio, that workers often take beach clothes to work and got there before or after work, or during their lunch. She said it would be quite unusual for a Rio resident not to visit one of the beaches at least once a week.



The final stop was the highlight event of today’s excursion. We went to Sugarloaf Mountain. The bus let us out near the base of Urca cable car station. We were given tickets which we had to present 5 times through the whole visit. First we took a cable car ride to the top of Urca Mountain. It presented us with some impressive views of the city and surrounding beaches. We had about half an hour to use the restrooms, get something to eat, or do picture taking, so we did all three. Since our departure had been delayed so much, it was now around 1:30 and we got a ham and cheese croissant. There were a lot of steps and the walking was over somewhat uneven sidewalks, so Janet was having some difficulty with her knee. We were able to get her access to the elevators thereafter so avoid some of the steps.



The next phase of our adventure was to ride a second cable car to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. The views from up there were really magnificent. Unfortunately Janet twisted her ankle getting off the second car and that hobbled her even further. She was able to get around a little but mostly waited on a bench until it was time to take the car back to the first station. David took a lot of photos and hopefully some of them turned out halfway as good as the real view had looked. Anyway, we boarded the car and returned to the first station. The logistical exercise of collecting 30 people coming off the cars and keeping them herded together was quite a task and our guide did it pretty well. We walked along a suspended platform through a wooded/garden area back to the first station and then rode down to the parking lot. By now Janet was really having trouble walking but she did make it back to the bus. We did not leave her in the basement of the Hermitage in St Petersburg and we did not leave her on the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.



The bus drove us back to the port and dropped us outside the terminal. Just like in Buenos Aires it was a very long walk to the ship from that point. This time Janet just could not make it any further. She limped into the terminal and sat in the first available chair. David went ahead to the ship and got a steward with a wheelchair to come back for her. Effectively she would have had to walk about 2 ship lengths on the uneven pier, so this was the only solution. When he wheeled her onto the ship (on 2 occasions the front wheel got stuck on something and we thought he was going to dump her out of the chair onto the ground – but it didn’t happen that way). When she did get back to the ship, the gangway was immediately outside of the medical center, so they wheeled her in to have her ankle and knee examined. Sadly we cannot report this as being our first visit to see the ship’s medics, but they did a great job in Australia and hopefully this version of Dr Adam Bricker will be just as successful. The recommendation was simply to rest it and stay off it for a while, and to apply ice to it.



They insisted on wheeling her to our cabin (apparently David didn’t look qualified). By now it was past time for our dinner in the dining room, and neither of us looked clean enough to go there right away, so we stayed in our stateroom. David got Janet a sandwich and dessert, with a large cup of tea. Then he got a couple of cheeseburgers and fries, along with come lemonade and dessert for himself. So we had dining-in this evening with David serving as the room service agent. Anyway, we have settled down now to try to let Janet get some sleep.



By the way, the medics vetoed Janet going on tomorrow’s excursion. She is disappointed but agreed that since today was rated as Moderate and tomorrow is Strenuous, she knew she could not do it anyway. The disclaimer in the tour description said “Long lines and delays of up to 90 minutes may be encountered” which would have been a challenge for her on a good day. But the medics stamped her ticket for tomorrow so the excursion people gave her a refund. David will get up tomorrow and get her some breakfast in the cabin, and then go take lots of pictures for her.

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