Grand South America 2017: 2017.02.14 - 15 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio lives up to its nickname of Marvelous City. It is the second largest city, and former capital of Brazil, as well as the cultural center of the country and a financial, commercial, communications, and transportation center for the country. The areas where Rio de Janeiro is now, was reached by Portuguese explorers in an expedition led by Amerigo Vespucci in January of 1501. Since the Europeans thought at first the Bay of Guanabara was actually the mouth of a river, they called it Rio de Janeiro, which means January River. The white sand beaches that greeted those explorers still attract visitors to Rio today. The city itself is sprawling, with many distinct neighborhoods, each with its own unique flavor. There are plenty of museums and churches to keep history buffs busy for days. At the same time, Rio showcases the vast natural beauty of the area with its many parks and city gardens. Probably the most iconic destination is the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, perched atop a mountain with its arms outspread as if welcoming visitors to the city. There are a total of 11.5 million people who live here, with 6.5 million in the city and 5 million around the bay. Our tour guide told us that there are more people in South America that speak Portuguese, than speak Spanish. The three main religions here are Jewish, Christian and African. Of the Christians, they are mostly Catholic followed by the Presbyterians.

On the first day we took a tour that I had arranged that turned out to be great. Thanks to Linda and Greg for suggesting the travel group. We came into the port about 6 AM, just as the sun was rising. You can see both Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain as you come in. We took so many pictures here it was hard to decide what to post.

This is not a working port, at least since the Olympics, and you walk right off into the port. They apparently did a lot of work in this area for the Olympics. These are old warehouse buildings that they have turned into port areas and a lot of the buildings are painted with street art.

We all met on the ship (15) and walked out to meet our guide Sergio.

The weather here could not be more perfect, though very warm. The sky was bright blue until we headed back to the ship in the late afternoon. In the morning we took a bus tour of all parts of the city. The first place that we stopped was at Mario Filho, the Olympic soccer stadium. The picture do not let you see the size of this stadium. They have had 240,000 here for a concert.

As we drove through the city there were many old and new buildings. One thing we noticed is that they still have a lot of pay phones. They are arranged in sets of three and look a little like a flower.

The next stop was at Candelaria Cathedral. This is a neoclassical cathedral and is the city’s oldest church dating back to 1630 and has undergone numerous remodels. The bell tower out front is awesome as well as the stained glass inside.

Our next stop was the old town and the aqueduct. In the square most of the buildings were original. The most impressive was the theater.

The last stop before lunch was Copacabana Beach. This beach is 3 miles long. They run water pipes through the sand so it will not be so hot.

Then we stopped for lunch at a Brazilian Steak House. The food was delicious as was the beer. They came around with this big bottle of liquor after lunch, but we declined.

The main part of our tour was to go to see Corcovado (Christ the Redeemer), which where we went after lunch. You take the tour bus to a tram, the tram to an elevator and then to steps or an escalator. It was well worth the trip. You will also see a picture of Sugar Loaf in the background.