Friday, January 24 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Day 1)

 This is an overnight port.  Many passengers are getting off here tomorrow and then some more will get on, although we've heard not as many as before, so the ship may be a bit quieter.  We were told we had 580 on this last segment.

We've been to Rio before and saw the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf mountain, so we elected just for a city tour today called the Sights and Sounds of Rio.  There were only 2 stops, the first at San Sebastian Cathedral.  We walked there from the ship when we were here on Princess in 2016.  I remembered nothing about the Cathedral, only that we sweated profusely on the walk home in the heat.  It was much more comfortable this time!

Huge turbine blades 

Some of the local artists leaving their marks on walls.  We have seen this nearly everywhere we've been.

This was outside of the Cathedral, I guess for those who don't want to wait in the horrendous line to get up to the real thing.

The cathedral was finished in 1966 and is quite modern in style.

Beautiful stained glass in the four corners.

This sticker was at every other seat of the pews.  It says "Be a Benefactor.  To Donate Point the Camera at the QR code and Confirm the Donation".  Seems a little tacky to me.  It reminds me of the machine at the back of the Basilica in Assisi that took credit cards for donations.  I guess even churches have to keep up with the times.

I'm pretty sure this is St. Francis so I'm not sure why he's here in the Cathedral of San Sebastian.  But it is a striking placement.

This is San Sebastian.  I'm not sure if his ashes are in this carriage, or what.  I didn't see an explanation, just the sign soliciting QR donations again.

At least you don't need a QR code for this one.  R$2.00 equals about 35 cents.  Michael offered $1, but the man at the cafeteria just gave him the ticket and waived him off.

Next we drove around the downtown area, which isn't the most beautiful by any means.  But soon we drove through a long tunnel to the southern part of Rio which has a large lake and nice apartment buildings, which are pricey.  The lake has automatic boats that go around picking up what they call the "white trash", which means the stuff people throw into them.  White trash, indeed.

Our guide called this a "milk apricot", although I can't find anything with that name in Google.  But he said it was planted around the city because it has beautiful flowers.  However, the fruit isn't edible by humans (birds and rats, yes), when the heavy fruit falls, it can damage cars,  and when the beautiful flowers fall, they stink something fierce.  It's not a big hit with the citizens.

Here's another look taken from the moving bus.  It looks more like a vine growing around the other tree.  I don't know how it supports those heavy fruits.

This part of town includes the famous beaches, Ipanema and Copacobana.  There is a beautiful Copabana Palace Hotel where all the rich and famous stay.  Except for President Barack Obama who wanted to stay, but he needed 3 floors for all of the people with him.  The hotel already had other famous people staying with their entourages, so couldn't accommodate the president.  He stayed at the Marriott instead.  (Or so our guide told us.)

This is Ipanema Beach which is about 2 km long. 

And this is Copacabana beach which is almost 3 km long.  It's right around the corner from Ipanema.  You can tell which one you're on because of the sidewalk pattern.  And notice the two tracks of wet sand going down to the water.  Vendors place soaker hoses near their shops so you can walk on the sand without burning your feet.  If it's hot enough, it will burn through your sandals.

Next stop was at a lovely restaurant for a local soft drink, Guarana, which is made from a local fruit that is high in antioxidants and caffeine.  It tasted a little like cherries, but was too sweet for me.

This was the bar attached to the restaurant.  The drinks (Manhattans, Martinis, etc) were in the $6-8 range which seems very reasonable, especially for this upscale area.

This interesting pathway was just outside the restaurant

Sugar Loaf Mountain as seen from the restaurant terrace.  Supposedly, the name comes from the sugar which was exported to Europe in leather bags.  When the bags were emptied upon arrival, the sugar kept the shape of the bag for a while and those were called "sugar loafs".

There are lots of trees, flowers, and tall apartment buildings in this area.

The view from our balcony.

Bo and Bob were still on their tour at Trivia time, so it was just Roger and us.  Since it is the last night of this segment, and they've already had the "turn in your points for branded merchandise activity" last night, this one was only for fun, no points.  Wouldn't you know we got 12/15 and would have gotten a point.  

A funny thing happened this morning while we were waiting in the theatre for our tour to depart.  We were chatting with Gordon & Patty and Roger.  We were talking about the Grand Arctic cruise we had done in 2022 on the Voyager.  Roger said, "I was on that cruise!"  And then the light bulb lit up.  I've been telling Michael for days that Roger really reminded me of someone that either was on a TV show we watched, or maybe on a cruise with us.  He has a very distinctive appearance and voice as he's originally from the UK but has lived in Pennsylvania for many years.  We agreed that we hadn't ever really spoken on that cruise, but I definitely remembered him.  Thank goodness, as it has been bothering me for a while.  He contracted COVID on that cruise and had to be quarantined for 8 days in a cabin on Deck 5 with no balcony.  (We were in Irish waters and that was their rule.)  His wife, Inka, had COVID also before Roger, but was only quarantined for 5 days.  Different rules.

Tonight they had a Brazilian barbecue on the pool deck.  You don't have to dress up for that, so we went there.  It was really delicious.  We ran into Barbara (of Barbara and Roger with whom we've had dinner a couple of time).  They get off tomorrow, but we exchanged info so perhaps we can keep in touch going forward.