Sunday 28 February 2010

DAY 47 Feb 28 - Rio de Janerio, Brazil

For our second day in Rio we have retained Rafa's services for the morning so we can see some more of the wonderful sights of the region.

This photo above, incidentally not taken by us while in Rio, shows how Ipanema Beach can look on a bad beach day!!

However, some of the sights found on the beach, as in the photo immediately above, can be quite pleasant if one looks carefully amongst this sea of humanity. I must say it's a bit different than our beach back home in Eastbourne!!

It's a most amazing thing to wake up and know you are in Rio de Janeiro. I really do recommend this to you!

The sun was shining and everything looked so peaceful from my balcony despite there being the huge US Aircraft Carrier right in front of us.

We understand that it is here for a little R and R and has several thousand US troops on board. As well as the US ship there are some Argentinean naval vessels also here who have been on joint exercises with the Brazilian and US navies.

Gary and Gerry, our very pleasant fellow sightseers from yesterday, made an early morning call up to the cabin to settled up accounts with us from the previous day's transactions. It was a good opportunity for them to see the Costa Magica arrive in the port and maneuver into her moorings just behind us.

After a slightly lengthier breakfast than yesterday we disembarked the ship and headed to the terminus exit to meet Rafa.

Gerry and Gary had given us their two Dutch mugs that the ship had presented to them a few nights ago. They were now a present for Rafa's mother. We did the same so she would shortly have a collection of four lovely hand painted Dutch porcelain mugs.

We were pleased to find Rio very quiet this morning as it was Sunday and still quite early. As we headed for the Corcovado, where the Christ the Redeemer statue dominates the surrounds, we went through the old neighbourhood of Santa Tereza . This was the oldest part of the city and was where the first Portuguese lived when they settled here.

It was in many ways similar to areas of Lisbon. The architecture was interesting and in good condition considering this was an old part of the city.

We continued our upward drive as Rafa was taking us to as near as we could go to the top of ‘Mount Corcovado’. Most people take a train from the bottom but we were pleased to have the luxury of the car. There was fortunately little traffic around as it was still early for sightseeing.

Eventually, as we almost reached the top, we had to leave the car and purchase a ticket for about $10 (equivalent) that allowed us to take the shuttle bus to the very top where Christ the Redeemer is situated.

There were fortunately no queues and we quickly reached our ultimate destination.

This is the most amazing experience to be up here over 700 metres (2300 feet) above Rio looking up at this gigantic statue of Christ. It weighs 700 tons and is 130 feet high.

The work began on its construction in 1926 and it was opened to the public in October 1931.

In 2007 the statue was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Anyone visiting the sight will completely understand why it was recognised in this way. The statue is of course a worldwide recognised icon of Rio de Janeiro.

The picture below was taken by Rafa with him lying on the ground looking up at us with the 170 foot statue appearing above us. Of course the actual figure of Christ is much bigger than it appears in the picture here.

Maintenance had recently started on the bottom part of the statue thus some scaffolding had been installed, but not enough to spoil our view.

We spend a good hour here happily snapping away with our camera. Rafa, whose hobby is photography, took plenty of pictures of Maria and myself, which he said he would subsequently e-mail to us.

Gradually the large patio area at the foot of Christ became very busy with tour parties. We even came across our friend Henk leading a party of CSI clients from our ship.

Rafa obliged by lying on the floor and taking a picture of Henk against the image of the statue.

Very shortly after we arrived the clouds came in and on one side of the mountain the visib-ility vanished completely.

This is a common pheno-menon and we were lucky that the actual statue had not been engulfed in cloud or mist while we were there. We understand that on some occasions people line up for hours to reach this majestic sight only to find that once there they can see nothing, below or above.

On our descent down through the National Park of Tijuca , we stopped at another amazing spot where the views were just breathtaking. Not only could we look up to Christ's statue in the clouds above us but we could also look down at the whole area of Rio and beyond below.

This beautiful spot also doubles up as a heliport although no helicopters used it while we were there.

Surely no other city in the world had these unique and exhilarating views to offer its visitors. People must come here in their millions each year to see and feel this symbol of Rio.

We stayed here some time happily taking in the mind-blowing scenery around us.

Rafa said this is where he brings his clients when the statue is surrounded in clouds and there is no visibility to the surrounding areas below. It is his plan B. We understand that he also had a plan C but this was never disclosed to us.

It was apparent to us that tour buses were not allowed to visit this incredible viewing spot so again we were lucky we had booked a private tour.

Near by on one of the hills was a great view of one of the Favella ghetto comm-unities. Our guide said that this was also one of the worst in the city and was responsible for much crime and drug running. It housed a considerable number of inhabitants.

While we were here at the Dona Marta viewpoint a large group of young people in their mid-teens descended upon us and started dancing in a large circle and generally had a good natured time. I must say they were all extremely well behaved.

It transpired they were from the adjacent city that we had visited yesterday and were here to celebrate one of the young girl's birthdays. She is pictured in the middle of this photograph below.

As part of the birthday celebration a profess-ional video team had been employed to record the whole thing. Her friends were pleased to talk to me in their bad English and wished us well as we left.

Clouds still surrounded the statue of Christ as we peered up at this iconic sight from our viewing point below. We were lucky indeed that we had left early that morning for our journey up the Corcovado Mount. Many thousands would be disap-pointed today I feared.

When we eventually reached the bottom Maria was pleased to see a beautiful building that was the Romanian Consulate. Nearby we also passed the vast US Consulate.

Just off the financial area of downtown Rio, we visited some of the important cultural and political buildings of the city.

This area of Rio is quite concentrated with fine high-rise office blocks coupled with more historic older buildings. It is a very good blend of the old with the new.

Firstly we saw the National Congress building that still retains a presence here. The Senate, however, is housed in Brasilia.

Near by was the former Royal Palace that is now a cultural centre for the City. By European royalty standards this was indeed a very modest palace.

In the same area was the Brazilian National Library and Natural History Museum.

Close by was a beautiful church that was originally used by the kings of this country and their families because of its proximity to the palace.

The National Theatre was undergoing renov-ations, a little like the one we saw in BA a few days ago.

Presumably this work was being undertaken at a slightly quicker pace than with its Argentinean counterpart. Rafa told us that this theatre was modeled on the one in Paris and it certainly did look a beautiful building.

Also in this general area is the Congressional building for the State. This was quite an impressive structure.

We then moved a little further on and visited the very impressive Candelaria church that looked and felt more like a Cathedral. Construction, in a baroque style, started on this in 1727.

For whatever reason it never took on the role of the principal church in Rio. It is nevertheless, a very large dominating structure in this part of town with enormous front doors that had been constructed and added in the 1820s.

It is doubly surprising that it didn’t become the City’s Cathedral because the existing one, built in the 1950's, is a very poor sight, externally anyway.

Friends Robin and Jennifer told us it had a wonderful interior and we were sorry that we didn’t manage to visit it during our stay. We only saw it from the outside, unfortunately, thus the negative impression gained.

The interior of the Candelaria church is very interesting and rich in treasures and with wonderful walled decoration. Rafa managed to take plenty of pictures with his 'good quality' camera despite the light levels being low. We found that many of our pictures just couldn’t cope with the poor light.

Another building we visited, right opposite the church, was the former Banco Do Brazil, a building which dated back to 1856. It is now used for cultural events having been handed over by the bank to the community for these purposes.

Most events there are free, or if not free, then a nominal charge is made to those attending. We took the opportunity of having a coffee here. Rafa is pictured here posing for a picture with Maria at the coffee stand.

Our last stop on this morning's tour which we had booked with our wonderful guide Rafa, was to the Benedictine Order's Saint Benedict Monastery. This is the oldest church in Rio with const-ruction starting in 1567. It was eventually conse-crated in 1590.

This was the most ornate church I have ever seen with a lavish use of gold leaf paint throughout.

The monks celebrate mass here on Sundays with the singing of Gregorian chant. As a result the church is usually full for this celebration of the Eucharist. No flash photography was allowed inside the church so picture taking was restricted and light levels were again low.

Surrounding the church is the monastery itself that houses the monks.

We had no information as to the number of monks in this community.

Shown in this photo is a model of these premises which is displayed at the back of the church.

After this our delightful guide delivered us back to the ship.

We were pleased to get to our air-conditioned cabin and cool down before heading up to the Lido for some refreshments.

On our arrival back at the port we had noticed that the Costa Magica was neatly tied up behind us.

This ship must have put over 3000 people ashore this morning but that was after we had begun our morning’s tour, thank goodness.

Robin and Jennifer were there having lunch and we joined them and compared notes on our day and a half in Rio. They too had been on privately arranged tours and had also had a great time. We agreed that Rio was a great City to have visited with so much to do and see.

At 3.30 we pulled out of our moorings with Frank Buck-ingham talking us through the many sights we were now encoun-tering as we slowly headed out to sea.

Passing through the harbour entrance Maria spotted three little yachts, which looked like some youngsters having yachting lessons.

We were now on our way to Salvador. This, Brazil's oldest city, would be reached after a day at sea. The day at sea would give us the opportunity to relax and get over our exhausting time in this great city of Rio de Janeiro.

1 comment:

  1. Paul and Maria,

    A wonderful travelogue of Rio with great photos. It brought back so many memories of our time in that city back in 2006. You certainly had a great guide to take you around.

    I have so much enjoyed your blog. I will be sorry when you finish your Grand Voyage.

    Jennie

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