The Amsterdam sailed into the Bay of Guanabara quite early this morning, so the cameraman in our family went to deck six forward right after 5am, to watch the sail in. At least there was no rain, but the skies were heavily overcast, making the photos almost colorless. In all of the times we have visited Rio, there has probably only been one without clouds or heavy fog. It's just the luck of the draw. But at least waiters served orange juice and coffee on the outside decks. Sure would have been nice if they had added Corcovado/Sugarloaf rolls, aka, Panama rolls. Hint…hint….
Rio de Janeiro is the second most populated municipality in Brazil with 6.32 million people. It was the former capital of Brazil, but today it has become the hub for finance, commerce, transport, and communications center of the country. It sure has come a long way since the Portuguese explorer, Americo Vespucci, discovered it in 1501.
The sprawling city has many faces such as the 125 foot tall statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches, and also shantytowns. You can also find the site of Carnaval with the bossa nova and samba dancers. You could spend days trying to see all of the churches and museums to learn the history.
The best time to visit is December through March, although it is not safe at night, or sometimes during the day too. In fact, a sobering message was printed on the front page of the When & Where today. Titled Travelers Tips, it dealt with the pickpockets and con artists that are typically found around the world. Rio just happens to have a lot of them, and all ages. A reminder that purses or backpacks are easy targets, as are flashy jewelry or dangling earrings and necklaces. Snatch and run thieves are experts at getting those. A suggestion was made to keep rubber bands around a man's wallet, making it difficult for them to take them from pockets. Lastly, check the USD change you get back….it may be counterfeit. Whoever thought of that? Well-warned, we followed those instructions, but we still bet this will happen to someone onboard.
We had company in the way of another ship in port. It was the MSC Musica, launched in 2006, with 2550 passengers. The crew members numbered 987, and the ship is 92,409 gross tons with 13 decks. Most of her guests appeared to be from Europe.
The shore excursions included trips to Corcovado and the famous statue, Sugarloaf, and a few with a churrascuria lunch. Our buddies Greg and Heo took one of those all day tours, and had a great time. Barb, Susie and Woody also found a restaurant serving the tasty meat lunch. Other tours did some site-seeing and one included a helicopter ride over the beaches and monuments. Tomorrow, an overland to Iguazu Fall for 5 days, 4 nights will take some folks from Brazil to Argentina for $3000 per person. So glad we did this trip in one day back in 2003. And we have also been to the top of both Sugarloaf and Corcovado at least three times, so today, we decided to hoof it to downtown.
The crew has been assigned to "fix-it" jobs while the ship is docked. Walking the outside deck, the noise of chipping hammers was deafening. Any passenger who chose to sleep in late was totally out of luck. Necessary emergency crew drills were done as well.
Leaving the ship around 10am, we had a long walk to exit the terminal building. Both ships were connected to this large terminal, which was full of souvenirs, Ben Bros. Jewelry reps, and taxi drivers selling tours or rides to anywhere in town. In addition, they did have free wifi for the folks that refused to purchase an internet plan on the ship. This does work out well for the crew members, since they always take the time to call home or email family, even if they do not venture into town.
Coming out the opposite side, we were on the wide streets full of more vendors. The food trucks had arrived, and were setting up their portable cafes on the sidewalks. It has been eight years since we were here last, and we did not remember all of this this. A new addition had to be the tram, which ran from here to many parts of the city. It appeared that tickets could be purchased from kiosks, but you would need local currency, which we did not get. Credit cards were accepted everywhere, even the popcorn vendors took them. By the way, we did see US dollars being taken at the souvenir booths and the mobile food trucks.
Halfway down this street, we came across Rozell, who was getting her morning walk in. She is such a lovely lady, and we stopped to chat with her for a bit. She said that in time, we will see her in all six pairs of her tennis shoes and matching outfits. She is smart to know that walking on these old streets of cobblestones can be tricky. Sandals and flip-flops are trendy, but give one no support in long distance walking. Searching for a street of highend shops, she could not find them. Just as well, because we learned later that these shops did not open until 3pm today. Perhaps we will search this out tomorrow.
Running into friends Wendy and Steve, our former hosts, they had just hiked around the waterfront, and suggested a good path for us. A new structure was built near the port for the 2016 Olympics, we believe. It is called the Museum of Tomorrow. Knowing it would take some time to circle it, we figured we would come back tomorrow. Continuing on, we strolled past the military area, totally roped off from the public traffic, and well-manned. We might add that with today being a Sunday, there were mostly locals out and about with their families. With the exception of a few homeless people (all cities seem to have them), most everyone was well-dressed and polite. Never once did we feel threatened by anyone.
Along the water's edge, we saw cormorants in flight, many frigates flying at airplane levels, pigeons, a few vultures, and some small birds. There were some pretty big fish jumping in this bay as well, and we wondered what was making them do that. Never did see a predator after them. Along this road, we located one of the oldest Neoclassic cathedrals in the city, Candelaria Church. Built in 1630, it sure reminded us of smaller version of St. Peter's in Rome.
Across from the church, was a museum that had a line of people wrapped around the corner to go inside. It looked to us like there was an exhibition of Egyptian artifacts happening now. Continuing in this district, we noticed several bars and cafes getting ready to open up, although there were not many customers milling around this time of day.
Back on the main street, we followed it to the Ferry Terminal, which was surrounded with massive plazas. We found out that tomorrow is a holiday, the feast of St. Sebastian, who happens to be the patron saint of Rio. We're hoping that means parades and some cool activities taking place somewhere in this historical quarter.
This seemed the best place to turn around and walk back. There had been many convenient benches to relax along the way, with no lack of vendors selling water bottles, beer, and coconut water. But we had gone quite a way, and it was just as long back-tracking to the pier. By now, some of the tour groups were arriving back from their four hour journeys, but had been dropped off outside the terminal. Their guides had failed to point out the entrance to the terminal, so several folks walked the opposite way, only to find the gates were locked. They were not happy campers, since it was a long walk in the heat of the day for them. And they were correct, there was no sign pointing the way back inside the terminal building.
Our Coke Zeros never tasted so good when we got back to our cool room. Working on photos, we finally went to lunch around 3pm. The Lido was full of people searching for food after their tours. At least they kept the stations opened beyond 2pm, or the salad and sandwich bars would have had very long lines. That is one of the most often heard complaints about the Lido. Long lines, and no place to sit keep many folks going to the dining room at noon. So far, the dining room has been closed for lunch on the majority of port days. It does give the wait staff time to go ashore, so we don't complain about that.
The sun finally peeked out later in the day, and we had a window of opportunity to get some nice shots from deck nine. Blue sky sure makes a difference by adding the needed color for background shots.
Dinner was most fun as we caught up with everyone's exploits of the day. Each story was interesting, and sometimes amusing. The fellows had a long day on their "free" tour for booking a veranda room. They chose the $220 per person 9 to 10 hour trip to see both Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf. Their lunch was a trip in itself, as was for Barb, Susie and Woody. They were in "meat" over-load, but still enjoyed a great dinner. Our entrees were mahi-mahi and carne asada with thinly-sliced rare beef. Desserts were one blueberry crisp with a little ice cream and one small chocolate tart. Good thing the desserts are getting smaller in size, so we are not the ones getting larger by the day.
Tomorrow will be another good day in Rio, as long as the rain stays away.
Bill & Mary Ann
