Rio de Janeiro

What a great city. It is so beautiful and full of such energy that you just want to Samba down the street in a very brief bikini. (Not this body, but we saw a lot of them!) Our ship spent 2 days in Rio and we packed as much as we could into our time.

On the down side, the traffic and lines are horrendous. It is hard to imagine that this city is about to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. To put it succinctly, is this city ready for the world stage, when you can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet in public restrooms????!!!!

Last year on the blog we told you Sydney had the most beautiful harbor to sail into in the world. That may still be true, but Rio is a close second. The harbor is surrounded by these leaning gumdrop-shaped granite hills that were forced up as the Earth’s plates shifted. We sailed into the harbor at sunrise, when the fog hadn’t been burned off and it provided an eerie sensation, as you can see in Picture 1. As we passed by, the fog lifted from Corcovado and the Christ the Redeemer Statue came into view, as you can see in picture 2.

On our first morning we visited Sugar Loaf and traveled by cable car to the top for wonderful views of Rio. Sugar Loaf is one of those “gumdrop mountains” (1293 feet), which stands above Guanabara Bay. Picture 3 shows Sugar Loaf from the shore.

We also visited the Cathedral Metropolitana, which is one of the newest and most interesting cathedrals we’ve seen. It’s not really beautiful, but it’s spectacular. It reminded us of an ancient Mayan temple. Picture 4 shows the exterior. Inside, the ceiling rises to a little over 200 feet and 4 beautiful stained glass windows reach to the ceiling, where skylights in the shape of a cross, let in the sunshine, as you can see in Picture 5. There was an interesting Crucifix, which included Mary and Joseph on either side of the cross, but otherwise it was very plain.

In the afternoon we visited Ipanema (“Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking….”—once in your head that song stays for a long time!). Picture 6 shows the wall-to-wall bodies that occupy the beach on the weekend.  Interestingly, our guide told us that there are no nude beaches in Rio because they are much too conservative! You’ll notice that most womens’ bathing suits are either thongs or “cheekies” (whether they look good in them or not!). Picture 7 shows Copacabana on Monday—crowds are a little thinner!

On our way back to the ship we took a quick side trip to see the Sambadrome (Picture 8). This is where Carnaval occurs (BTW Carnaval means “goodbye meat”—carne vale). There are also street fairs that occur during this time preceding Lent, but what Rio is known for are the Samba Club competitions that occur here. For 3 nights, the different Samba Clubs put on their individual shows as they march down the almost-half-mile distance between the 2 rows of seats (seating 30,000). On the fourth night, those winning prizes on the first 3 nights compete again and the best Samba Club is crowned. The tickets are pricey and the show typically lasts for a loud 4 hours and even though there are seats, everyone stands for the entire time. Rumor has it, alcohol may be involved….

On our second day we headed out to Corcovado (the mountain name, which means hunchback) and the Christ the Redeemer statue. The height of Corcovado is 2329 feet and is the highest mountain in the area. You reach the statue level by cog railway and then enjoy the views from top. Picture 9 shows you the view of Sugar Loaf and Guanabara Bay from the top.

The Christ the Redeemer statue (Picture 10) sits at the top of Corcovado and can be seen from almost everywhere in Rio (Picture 11). It is 124 feet tall, made of reinforced concrete and was designed by a French architect. The statue was paid for by the Catholic Church and was completed in 1931. At precisely 7:00 PM, on October 12 of that year, the statue was to be lit by Marconi sending a signal from Italy. Being in the middle of a rainforest, it rains a lot here and it started raining October 9 and did not stop. Someone suggested postponing the lighting, but the Church didn’t want to do that because October 12 is a feast day for the Virgin Mary. At 6:00 PM, people started leaving their homes with umbrellas to, hopefully see a little light from the statue). And then a miracle occurred. At 6:30 PM, a strong wind suddenly blew in from the ocean, the rain stopped and the clouds cleared and by 7:00 all could see the statue lit.

We sailed away from Rio after dark and the city in lights is spectacular.