Sue's Travels: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 19 January 2013

Saturday, 19 January 2013

I normally write up my experiences before I go to bed, but last night I was too exhausted.

I had my wake-up call for 6:00 am and had my luggage out early. I think that I was the first one to pay my bill and then went off for breakfast. We headed out for the airport at 7:30 am as Alex had indicated the night before. The airport at Iguassu Falls was relatively small and there were no problems except for Kathy and Jeff. They had to pay an exorbitant overage fee. We got to Rio and were met by a guide, Lillian.

We got into the bus and started our tour. We were taken to the Cathedral which is shaped like a pyramid and has four sets of stained glass windows. I was not terribly impressed with the building. It didn’t create feelings of awe in me the way many of the old gothic cathedrals do. From there we drove through the city and what I saw did not impress me. We headed to Sugar Loaf Mountain for the cable ride to the top. The bus dropped us off and we got on line to wait! The area was very crowded. We were told that there were several cruise ships in port and as a result a lot of buses and vans had been rented for their use.

Samba Parade is held here during Carnavale

Cathedral - built in the shape of a pyramid

Description

Stained glass windows

Modern buildings

View of city

Fine Art Museum

Sugar Loaf Mountain

Library

Sugar Loaf Mountain

cable car to go up to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain

Mobs of people going up in the cable car

Cable car

Jack fruit

View of mountain from cable car

Looking down on the bay

View of the city from the top of the mountain

Flemingo Beach

View from the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain

Me with Flamingo Beach in the background

Me with Copacabana beach in the background

Looking out to Sea

Buzzard flying over head

On the ground

We finally got up to the intermediate stop and walked over to take the second cable car up to Sugar Loaf Mountain. The wait for the second car was not quite so long. When we finally go to the top, it was definitely worth the wait. The views were spectacular. The lines to go down were not quite as long.

We loaded up in the bus to head to the hotel. The area that we drove through – Copacabana and Ipenima – changed my opinion of Rio. It was beautiful. The beaches are exquisite. Copacabana is an older neighborhood and is not as desirable now, because of a lack of parking. Most of the residents are retired people to whom the lack of parking is not quite as much of a problem.

Copacabana Beach

Favela behind hotel

Ipenama Beach

People celebrating St Sebastian day - patron saint of Rio

The Samba show trip had been cancelled because they need a minimum of 15. The problem was that the dinner involved with the show was meat and about 12 people on the tourdo not eat meat. If the restaurant had other options, it would have been a go. There was a lot of back and forth about the show. Apparently we could go to the show alone. I would have like the bus to take us and pick up, but some of the people wanted to go out to eat and not have dinner at the hotel. Barbara was annoyed over the fact that people would not agree to the bus. The cost of the bus per person would have been $30 versus considerably less for a cab. I would up going with four couples. It was not a problem as the hotel as they have cabs that will take up to 6 people.

We went to dinner at La Mole, a place suggested by the concierge. The food was good and more than ample. I was only able to eat about half of what I ordered. As we got to the restaurant, people were dancing in the street to celebrate St Sebastian day. St Sebastian is the patron saint of Rio and the people of Rio enjoy celebrating. One of the women had insisted that we eat outside and initially the celebrating made conversation impossible. Eventually the group moved on to continue their festivities elsewhere.

We walked approximately six blocks to the theatre. We felt that as a group of nine we were probably safe. When we arrived at the theatre, we found other people from the group already there. Lillian our guide was there and she had arranged with a lady in the theatre to help us get cabs to head back. The show was very bright. The customs were what you expect at carnival. A lot of the woman wore almost nothing except for very elaborate head dresses. A good time was had by all, until time to head back. We had trouble getting a cab. Eventually I said that I would take a cab alone since the cabs didn’t want to take five people. Finally one cab agreed and Diane sought of lay on top of Barbara (whose name I thought was Margaret!). We paid him thirty riales. Chuck gave the driver 10 and I gave him 20. Mark reimbursed me 10 so everything worked out. Larry told us that his cab driver had turned on the meter and the fare was 15!