Rio de Janeiro, BrazilJan 19, 2012
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Rio from Mt. Corcavado
Court and Deb in front of Christ the Redeemer
Christ the Redeemer
| Rio de Janiero means River of January. It is a magnificent port to sail in and out. It had recently rained so there was a light fog. The bay has an out-cropping of hunchback hills jutting out of the water; each is topped by trees. The ship docked right downtown. We have been warned repeatedly to be careful of pick-pockets. It is suggested not to even wear jewelry so we are fearful. Originally, we were going to do Rio ourselves using taxis but we met a representative from a Brazilian jeweler, H. Stern, who offered to provide a private car with a driver and an English speaking guide. All we had to do was take a factory tour, listen to a sales pitch and write a letter to Holland America. It turned out to be a great deal! Our tour guide was a young man named Patrick, a blond Brazilian/USA mix who looks like a young Brad Pitt. He is a realtor and tour guide by day and attends dance school at night. We traveled by private car through crazy traffic. There are no traffic lanes; cars and busses share the space equivalent to 3 car widths. But amazingly, drivers are polite and allow cars and busses to switch lanes readily. Motor cycles travel in between the traffic. The car “close call” buzzer goes off frequently. We traveled to an area called Cosme Velho where we took the cog train, Trem do Corcovado, to the top of Mt Corcovado. Mt Corcovado means Hunchback and is the city’s highest point (2,330 feet). From atop, we looked down on Rio. Although there is still light fog, we could see the world’s two largest forests inside an urban area. In the distance, the famous beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema could be seen. Atop the mountain is the Christ the Redeemer statue. The 130 foot statue is made of reinforced concrete with an outer layer of soapstone making it very white. One could hardly move around the people lying on their backs taking pictures or standing on the stairs with their arms stretched out to have their picture taken. It was hard to be inspired by the statue with the tons of people. It was hot so a glass of mango juice went down easily. As we rode down the mountain on the cog train, Courtney danced with some samba musicians. Next we drove through the southern district around the Rodrigo de Fruitas Lagoa, a lake shaped like a heart. We stopped for our H. Stern factory tour and a snack of crescent roll with mozzarella cheese melted inside and a Tang-like drink. From here we headed to the Jardim Botanico (Botanical Gardens) where we walked around viewing plants we consider houseplants growing in the flower beds. The trip back to the ship was long but we got to see orchids growing in trees lining the streets and even a small monkey scampering along the wires. |
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