Day 37 - February 9, 2008 - Rio de Janeiro

Rio photos
Debbie and Margie really enjoyed the show last night that was really only 1 dance to open by the ballroom dance champs, then JC Fisher with the Regent Signature Orchestra. He was from Kansas City and he tried a sort of comedy as well. He did a lot of audience participation. It was good.
We were up early for what was advertised by everyone on the ship as one of the 3 best sail ins in the world. Terry had told us that we would be here early to try to catch the sunrise and she would begin narrating at 6am. It wasn't sunrise until much later. So, anyway at just before 6am, they turned on all the lights in Observation Lounge and between the reflected glare and the dirty windows, there was absolutely nothing to be seen from there. Capt. Delavault did a 360 degree turn in the bay in front of Corcovado with its Christ statue lit up on top before rounding Sugar Loaf and docking. We would have been better off once again by just staying in our cabins and listening and viewing there. We gave up about the time LaVeranda opened at 7am and went to the back open deck to sit and eat. We had hoped to continue listening to Terry's commentary from out there, but it was not being broadcast there. We were docked on the starboard side by 7:30am and the ship finally cleared around 9am. RSSC was running a free shuttle from the port to Ipanema (near H. Stern) and back once every 30 minutes according to Passages. We don't know if that was around the clock or what since there wereno times listed in the newsletter or anywhere else that we noticed.

Today we had our complimentary private tour booked through the H. Stern representatives onboard. We walked through the Terminal Building (which turned out to be a big mistake since that was where we saw the only t-shirts anyone was interested in and later they were closed!) and met Nessim who assigned us an assistant. She was a young woman named Ana and we were in an air-conditioned Toyota sedan with a driver named Nelson. We did not have anything too bizarre planned here. Nessim had told us he thought we could see the 2 mountains, the Carmen Miranda Museum, H. Stern and have lunch. But, today was the last day of Carnavale. It was very crowded here. Rio is a beautiful city in a stunning physical setting, but it must be the tour bus capital of the world. We were told that it had been raining all week in Rio and it was not clear that it would be a nice day. But, it was a nearly perfect day. It was between 26 and 30 degrees Celsius all day and partly cloudy. It did not rain until nearly dark and by then we were just ready to come back to the ship and crash anyway. Technically, Carnaval ends on Tuesday and Lent begins on Wednesday, but not here. Here it ends officially on Sunday. Today is the parade of champions of the Carnavale and the big culmination. Everyone has said that if you can only be here one day this is it. But, we did not know that until too late to do anything about it really. Also, since we only had the one day here because we chose to spend more time going to Iguazu Falls, we had to choose and we chose to ignore Carnavale. Unfortunately, our memo did not reach the throngs of people here! We stood in a long line to buy tickets to take the train up Corcovado (US$21pp) only to learn that the tickets were for noon. That was 2 hours away and the driver had already left and he said there was too much traffic to take a chance going elsewhere and coming back so we just had to kill 2 hours waiting to stand in line again. Pretty much what we did all day today was stand in line and wait for our turn at something. We did get to see the Christ the Redeemer statue though, which is a very iffy thing apparently. We did get to see it in all its entirety before clouds rolled in, but the clouds had already obscured the views from up there of the city. It was 2pm by the time we got back down and we went to lunch. We agreed to Ana's suggestion of Porcao. This translates to Big Pig. We felt like big pigs when we left there! It was a big place right on the bay and it was very busy and crowded with mostly local families it seemed. This place had a lot of specialties that we had never had. They had fried cheese pastries, little hard boiled eggs, farofa, and tons of meat. They had an enormous buffet and then, they came around with grilled meat on long skewers and cut off some if you wantedit. Clay had 2 different local beers, Cerpa and Chopp Tulipa. Both were nice light ales. Debbie tried the Caipirinha, which is a strong mixed drink, in the vein of the Pisco Sours from the other coast. Margie had the Caipirinha variation with strawberries instead of lime. Both were very strong even though they were made with sugar. One was probably plenty for a lifetime. We were glad that we invited Ana to join us for lunch since we would never had gotten in without her as we did not understand the Portugese announcements for numbers as we were waiting to had our ticket number called. Also, she explained everything to us from how it worked to what things were. It was really hectic and chaotic and loud but the food was overly abudant and very good. Not something you would want to do very often though, it seems. Lunch for 4 was US$210. By now, it was 4pm and we decided to go up Sugar Loaf (US$20pp) while it was still clear and forget about the museum since it was getting late. We had a fairly clear time at Sugar Loaf and again it was very crowded. The clouds were blowing by fairly quickly and we got to see everything except the top of Corcovado from up there. Though we did get some clear views of the Christ up there from down at the beaches off and on later. We made a last stop to tour H. Stern and we were back on the ship just after 7pm. We were really glad that we had not booked a samba show like some people had. We were sweaty and exhausted just from all the shuffling along in lines with the throngs of people here. Plus the early and long days we have ahead.
This evening we received invitations for this segment's Gold, Platinum and Titanium event. It is tomorrow at 12:30pm. We will be gone to Iguazu by then and will miss it. Anyway, it is a unique perspective for the sailaway from the forward deck 7.
If wedon't post for a few days don't be alarmed. We will not have the laptop with us and we will not be back on the ship before the afternoon of the 12th. So, farewell until then. Wish us luck!
Rio photos