4 hours in Rio Current mood: awake Category: Blogging
O.k., so we got into Rio De Janero late. Its usually hard to get off the ship early, & as this was a 'turnaround day' , meaning new passengers, it was going to be even more difficult. I signed up for the crew tour, thinking that I would at least get to see some of the highlights of this famous & cosmopolitan city. As we approached, I was up early (about 6 a.m.), excitedabout the day ahead, & already taking photos of the nearing Corcovada & city. We had two busses for the crew tour, I was on #2. We got off the ship around 11 a.m., & filed through the busy terminal & areas . There wasabout 55 of us on the one bus. Our guide was local , & talked through a mike turned up too loud. We made one stop at a trinket shop before taking the trolleything up to the top of the mountain to Corcovado & the amazing statue. The trinket shop took too long & everyone was writing postcards & buying stuff. It had been raining & cloudy apparently for three weeks straight. How lucky were we to have a beautifull sunny day ? I was impressed with the view, to say the least.There was a lot of condors or vultures of some type zooming around the cliff immediatlely beside ,below & around the stairs to the top. I would have liked to spend more time trying to get the perfect picture of them. I did get a couple good shotsof them, I think. As well , I took a lot of pictures of the view , & the statue itself. It was very hot up there , & there was not much shade. I was worn out by the time our time was up.Some local musicians were jamming away in the other trolley car back down. Too bad I was in the back one. Also , I should perhaps mention that our guide did a good job whisking us in front of all the other tourists!There was a lot of traffic in the city. We had zero time to stop at the beaches. We zoomed by some fabulous places of note, including Ipanema beach, & umm, cant remember the other famous spots. There are gorgeous young women in bikinis having showers & other sights hard to avoid not noticing. Suffice it to say the 4 hours had zoomed by very quickly. I took a lot of photos. Will try & upload a few here in my pics. As we passed the last beach , a storm was coming up with lightning & it was raining by the time we were on board. Everyone had a great day , & wished we had more time ashore ! We have now been back to Montevideo Uraguay , where I bought some trinkets from the few local vendors in a seemingly deserted big city. (Merry Christmas y'all)!( Beach trip was a no go as to a bit of hangover this morning)...