More fabulous Rio De Janeiro

On our way from the ship to the hotel our guide was telling us about the terrible traffic here. We have already experienced it downtown, but he was telling us that it is so bad coming into the city in the morning that they turn some streets into one way streets just for the rush hour(s) to accommodate it. The trick is that the times change depending on the day of the week -- or the whims of the traffic police, as we found out when we tried to go to our hotel. We had to drive around for half an hour because they had extended the one-way time and the alternative route would have taken longer than the half hour. Also, in preparation for the Olympics in 2016 they are doing major renovations city wide, including building additional metro stations which requires long term closures of many key streets.

After checking in we went with another English couple to the Christ the Redeemer statue. This required a taxi to take us to the staging place in the Tijuca Nacional Park. As cars aren't allowed all the way up to the Statue you can go by Funicular (they call it a train) or by shuttle bus and escalators. The lines for the train are typically very long, unless you have pre-purchased your tickets, so we opted for the shuttle route. The requirement to drive these 15 passengers vans must be that you were a Le Mans driver in a former life. The road is narrow and winding as it snakes up the mountain and they drive it on two wheels at about 60 mph--screeching around the hair pin turns so that you get brief glimpses of stunning views before your vision blurs!

Today the escalators were broken, or out of electricity as the sign said, so we had to walk the last 220 steps to the top. I did mention that it was 34 degrees (100 ) and very humid.

Still the sights from the top are truly amazing! We looked way down on Sugar Loaf, which we did yesterday--and which I thought was the ceiling of the world then. Plus the statue itself is beautiful. The body was poured in place and the head and the hands were attached. While we were there a guy got down on one knee and proposed--complete with ring. The crowd cheered him on--and she said yes!

Going down the mountain our driver came whipping around a corner and there was another van whipping around coming up. To avoid each other there was much squealing of tires, screeching of brakes and screaming from the passengers. A little too much excitement for us!

Our hotel, the Sheraton, is the only one actually on the beach and we have a lovely room overlooking the pool and Leblon and Ipanema beaches just beyond. We spent a very relaxing time down by the pool watching people dive off the rocks and kicking the ball around. We managed to lift our books up and to shift our chairs as the sun moved around.

Ipanema beach is just around the corner and we went there for dinner and an evening walk. It was still in the mid 80's and energetic sorts were playing a kind of beach foot volleyball where you can use your feet, chest and head, but not your hands. On the lake, which is a few blocks inland, we saw the illuminated floating Christmas Tree which is the tallest in the world. They wait until Mexico City puts theirs up and then they add a star to this one to ensure that it stays the tallest.

Rio de Janeiro

We sailed into Rio late morning and it was a pretty spectacular introduction to the city. Even though it was hazy the approach is incredible as it brings you past Christ the Redeemer on Mt. Corcovado, past beautiful white sandy beaches, scenic bays, historic forts and the world famous Sugar Loaf Mountain. You see the Palace of Emperor Dom Pedro and go right by the Brazilian navy's aircraft carrier and war college. You travel parallel to the nine mile bridge which connects to the neighboring communities and dock right near downtown.

Hearing that the traffic in Rio rivals many cities for nightmarish-ness we opted for a ship's tour to Sugar Loaf and the Cathedral. By the time we left it was well into the 90's with humidity to match so we were glad that we weren't clamoring for a taxi. Those of you familiar with my aversion to heights will be proud that I went up both levels of the cable car (gondola) to the very top--without sedation!

The views were spectacular. You could see 360 degrees and the beaches and bays looked very enticing on such a hot day. From there we traveled back into the very bustling downtown (population of Rio is around 9 million) to the Metropolitan Cathedral.

From the outside it looks a bit like a concrete bee hive and it wasn't very well received by the local populace when it was first built. It wasn't until Pope John Paul came and said how much he liked it that it became a source of pride for the community. It was late afternoon when we arrived and the sun was streaming in through one of the four stained glass windows. Each window is about 150 feet tall and they are gorgeous. One is mainly red tones, one blue, one yellow and one green. Our guide was telling us that at Christmas the Cathedral is completely full and the outside courtyard too--over 5,000 people.

Tomorrow we disembark and head for our hotel on Ipanema Beach for a couple of days before heading home!

Salvador De Bahia

Yahoo! A great port here in Northeastern Brazil. This port has a dramatically different feel from the previous two.

It was the first and most important slave market in the Americas. African slaves were brought to work the sugarcane when the local enslaved indigenous people died from European disease. Eighty percent of the population are descendants of those slaves brought in equal numbers from Angola and Nigeria. They influence the food, art and religion of the area.

One of the churches we visited was the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Blacks. It's the beautiful lavender one in the photo. This church was started in 1704 and was built at night by slaves; it took over a century to complete. When we were there today a wedding was taking place.

The church and convent of St Francis was completed in 1723 and much of it was also built by slaves. It is incredibly ornate with painted wooden panels, elaborately carved railings, ivory statues, silver lamps, mosaic tile, and painted tiles, 48 paintings on the ceiling, the choir is carved from Jacaranda and displays what looks like topless, pregnant women! Much of the woodwork is covered in gold leaf.

The old neighborhood of Pelourinho is a Unesco world heritage site due to its extensive examples of baroque architecture and it has had a lot of money spent on the restoration of 600 buildings. It certainly shows as there are delightful cobblestone streets lined with of colorful storefronts. There are something like 350 churches and a lovely square with churches at both ends and the medical school on the side.

In the harbor is the Fort of St Anthony, built in the 1500s when a number of European sea powers were causing trouble up and down the Coast of South America. Although we didn't get to any, the area is also home to some gorgeous beaches. As we have found elsewhere in Brazil, the people are very friendly and helpful, even with limited English.

Recife, Brazil

After some quaint fishing villages, we were not prepared for Recife, a city of 1.5 million inhabitants. Parts of it were originally layed-out by the Dutch so there is a series of canals and waterways and the city is also known as the Venice of Brazil. The Portuguese then took over and so their influence can be seen in much of the colonial architecture.

The city is an assault on your senses. The waterways are clogged with all kinds of garbage with the Egrets fishing among the detritus. It was about 90 degrees with high humidity, so you can imagine the smell.

To say there was a cacophony would be putting it mildly. All of the street vendors are yelling out offering their wares. On the bridges they have their goods on blankets; everything from television remotes to knives with 8 inch blades. Most of the stores have either music blaring or people with loud speakers trying to entice shoppers. The ice cream sales people all seem to do loud clapping, while the water sales people shout a rhythmic "agua, agua, agua ". Add to that guys on bicycles with large front and back speakers loudly promoting something--we think it might have been political. In many cases the bikes are just parked, blasting out the messages with no rider in sight. Then there are the street musicians, the bible readers, and the traffic: scooters, motorbikes, buses, hand carts, and you name it--all going full tilt! Oh, and machinery! Road works, guys with generators doing electrical work, builders, painters, and every other person shouting into a cell phone--Mama Mia!

While downtown we did have a brief chat with a guy trying to attract attention for an Optical store. We believe that he was dressed as Ronaldo, the famous footballer. He started off with "I love English" but switched to "I love Americans" as soon as he learned our citizenship. I have attached his "slo-mo" video because he was so proud of his performance (we actually had it twice) and we have half a dozen photos of the 3 of us too!

The architecture ranged from beautifully restored colonial buildings--like the legislative buildings and the prison turned craft market--with each store in a different cell, to places under long-term renovation, like the British built train station. Then there were gorgeous old buildings that looked as if they would crumble if you blew on them, interspersed with some of the ugliest concrete and glass monstrosities many covered with mold.

The map we had was fairly useless and so we never actually got to the place we were intending, even after much arm waving and rapid-fire Portuguese directions from some well intentioned heavily-armed, Kevlar-vested police. Actually, there was a large police presence everywhere we went. Apparently the unemployment is 33% and 70% of the wealth is held by 3% of the population so crime can be an issue. We were told not to wear any rings, watches, necklaces, etc when going ashore and heard, second hand about two people from the ship that had necklaces yanked off.

After a fairly unsuccessful morning we returned to the ship for lunch and set off in the heat of the afternoon on a ship excursion. We started with an open-air catamaran ride on the same river we had traversed by bridge in the morning. Luckily the tide had come in and so the garbage had been covered up and there was no smell. All the locals were very friendly and waved from the shore or from other boats, and the town looked much prettier from the water. They are in major preparation to host some games of the soccer World Cup in 2014.

While we were on shore the Brazilian authorities came on board to conduct a health inspection of the ship. It is their requirement that cabin attendants wear certain attire to clean cabins, so we were greeted in the hallway by Rovic wearing a full length (to the floor) rubber apron, heavy rubber gloves, rubber boots and a full face cloth face mask. Oh, and I did mention that it was the mid 90's! The day before we were delayed leaving the port for 2 hours while they tussled with some "immigration" issues. I might suggest that with the Olympics coming in 2016 that Brazil might think about streamlining some of their tourist-related processes!

Natal, Brazil

How do you have the most fun in a city where you don't speak the language?

Hire a taxi, where the driver doesn't speak your language either!

Now this might be a bit of an exaggeration because he did speak about 6 words of English and between us we spoke about 6 words of Portuguese.

We had originally thought that we would do our usual wandering around the town today, but Natal is a city of about 820,000 people, and it is quite large-land wise. Plus, as Molly would say, parts are quite sketchy. They are just starting to attract tourists and there is a lot of building going on, so right next door to a new 50 story high rise is a lot that looks like its been used to dump garbage for ages. Well ,long story somewhat shorter, we decided to take a one-hour taxi tour with Lorraine and Yitz who are from Manchester in the UK. The man at the tourist office negotiated our price and we shoe-horned ourselves into the tiny taxi.

Our driver (whose name we still didn't get after 4 tries) we dubbed "Messi" because he was wearing an Argentina football jersey with "Messi" on the back. According to Yitz he's just about the best football player in the world today! So off we go with the windows open so that the very hot and humid air could blast us, and Messi pointing out important building after building. The four of us would have a debate about what the building was; school, government building, church (ok, so we could manage those) museum, court house, etc.--any three votes out of four became the verdict!

We did stop and get out at a couple of places. Then the real excitement began. Messi is apparently a photographer, when not driving a taxi, and he insisted on posing us for photos. This would have been fine, except he wanted us standing in the foreground while he got the right angle on the subject, and this involved standing directly in the line of traffic in the middle of fairly busy roads. Amazingly no one honked, they just waited patiently while he composed and then took multiple shots with both of our cameras. He had us scrutinize each one to ensure that it met our standards. Little does he know that we snap and go and if we happen to get both the person and the building in focus we count it as a win.

After visiting churches, the downtown shopping district, and a stop at the new cathedral he then drove us out of town to the beach. At a stop light he was centered on the white line that divided the two lanes (his lane right out of the middle as we say). When the light changed the car on the left didn't move away fast enough for him, so he honked. This would have been fine, except the car was Policia! We were amazed and expressed in our very best mock-Portuguese how this would not have been a good idea in Angleterre or Americano! Clearly traffic rules are "suggestions" here in Brazil as he drove "Monte Carlo" style out along the waterfront to the Ponta Negra beach.

At the beach he really put his photographic skills to work by posing us with a beer bottle, which appeared out of the trunk. Actually, we love these photos and think he really does have some talent. When we got back to the Tourist Info center he grabbed the camera and showed all the other drivers and the guy who had negotiated the deal. It turns out that these photos are copies of postcards that they sell here.

We had one last stop on the way back--the coconut stand, where for 5 Real ($2.50) five of us had fresh cold coconuts with a straw--delicious! Lorraine even had hers chopped open so that she could scoop out the middle!

We all agreed that it's a good thing that the clock is not as strictly adhered to here as at home. Here our one-hour tour turned into two and a half hours of the most fun we have had in a long time! We think "Messi" enjoyed himself too as there were lots of smiles and vigorous hand shakes all around as we departed!