February 16 - Days 41 - 43

 February 14 – Day 41 – Rio de Janeiro 1

At 6 AM I was up on deck watching as we came through the dark along the coast of Brazil leading into Rio. We passed several oil platforms being refurbished before returning to sea. The sun was just starting to rise when I caught my first glimpse of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, wich overlooks the city of Rio. It was many miles away and really looked puny. We continued to weave our way into the harbor, and were docked by 7:30.

This city is huge. The population, including the surrounding area, is 10,000,000. It seems like they are all on the road at once. At 9 AM we left on a 4 hour tour of the sights of Rio. It included a ride on the cog train up to Corcovado, the mountain and statue overlooking the city. We saw many sights, but the highlights were:

Passing the permanent concrete bleachers set up along both sides of the street next to the highway. Carnival is going on now, and they will receive high usage over the next week until Ash Wednesday.

We went through one of the 22 tunnels that connects the city’s neighborhoods separated by the mountains within the city. This led us to Ipanema Beach. We drove by this wide expanse of sand until we got to Copacabana Beach. Here we got off the bus, and walked the beach. Our guide explained that Brazil does not allow topless bathing, but dental floss bottoms are OK.

Next, we passed Sugarloaf Mountain on our way to the train station for the ride to Corcovado. When we arrived at the top, the size of the statue was awesome. What was puny from the streets, was huge up close. We walked completely around the statue. At 2,300 feet the views were very impressive. The city has a national park with a rain forest running through the heart of it. It is beautiful!

Next stop was the cathedral. It is built like a large cone, and can hold 20,000 people. It has only 4 stained glass windows, one at each entrance. They run from the top of the entrance to the top of the cone. Amazingly beautiful!

Our 4 hour tour took 6 hours. We loved it.

After dinner, we had a Samba show onboard. Wow! Energy, beauty and talent all rolled into one fantastic show. We were glad we had not booked the Samba show and dinner ashore. We have not heard any comments about that show, but our show has gotten raves from all who saw it.

Alice and I closed out the day with a walk on the top deck. We marveled at the city lights and the stars. Are we really doing this? It is all so good, and so hard to believe.

February 15, 2012 – Day 42 – Rio de Janeiro 2

We are glad we did the highlights yesterday. Today we are taking the free shuttle provided by H. Stern Jewelers to their world headquarters in Ipanema. We joined 14 others for a minivan ride. After touring the “plant” we were told where the beach was, and advised to return to the same location for the free ride back to the ship.

At the beach we walked across a wide, flat expanse of fine sand. Then it was downhill in somewhat firmer sand to another wide stretch of hard sand at sea level. Finally we were at the water. Alice shed her shoes and walked into the ocean. It was cold! We had been warned about this, but had to experience it. 


As we walked back to the street, Alice found the sand to be really hot. We settled onto a wall at street side, and while Alice put her shoes back on, we chatted with an older local gentleman. He lives in Ipanema, comes to the beach everyday and is very proud of his city. He was very cordial, and invited us back.

H. Stern delivered us back to the Prinsendam. After lunch, I read and relaxed, while Alice brought her journal up to date. We skipped the comic magician’s show, and retired early.

February 16, 2012 – Day 43 – Buzios, Brazil

Buzios is on the coast about a hundred miles north of Rio. We are told it is where the wealthy of Rio go to escape. It has many nice beaches and resorts. We arrived early in the AM, and anchored. Tender service started before 9:00.

We left at 9:30 and returned at 2:00. We had no tour, but chose to walk the waterfront and surrounding neighborhoods. The Costa Musica is anchored near us. It is much larger than we are, and disgorged many passengers even before we went ashore.

We went opposite the flow of the masses. Our meandering led us to a small neighborhood around a lagoon with all sorts of waterfowl. It was quiet and peaceful. We spent a lot of time there. Then we walked back to a stretch of beach far away from the pier. It seemed to be all local people here. No cruisers. More peace.

After a leisurely return to the pier area, we went the way the masses had gone earlier. This led to the shopping streets and town center. We were really lucky. Our chosen path of travel had brought us here when most of the others were finished and returning to their ships. What fun we had.

Now we are back. Lunch is over and the blog is caught up.

The captain advised us early this morning that Salvador, the port scheduled for Monday, will be deleted because of a travel advisory issued by the U. S. State Department. There have been over 50 homicides recently. The police are on strike, and the military is trying to keep order. A place best avoided.

To make up for this we will stay here a few extra hours today, and we will have an open bar from noon until 2 PM on the day we were to visit Salvador. Better to die of drink than bullets, they say.

Until next time.