ARRIVAL RIO DE JANIERO
12 December 2006- Tuesday
Yesterday was the last day on the ship and the weather was balmy as ever- Got to hear Jonathan's lecture on the Titanic (he'd been to Halifax Maritime museum also). They also showed the last segment- part 4- of the A&E production of the life of Napoleon. I now know more about him, but he is still an enigma. Was his real plan to unify Europe and establish the European Union 200 years before it happened? Was successful in using up all my internet minutes, so I counted it as a successful day. Did get suckered in to the entertainment after dinner because they advertised a variety show with the Broadway group and the male singer who was the screamer I walked out on at his first show. The Broadway group did one number and the remainder of the show was the screamer but I was hemmed in by the audience and couldn't eascape. Maybe it was just the sound system up to loud, but he was hard to take. Did meet the deadline of suitcase in the hall by midnite.
Sailed in the harbor of Rio at about 4:30 am and I was awake for it. Plenty of light so you can make out the landscape which is awesome in daylight and since I had seen it on my last trip I could pick out the landmarks. The bay is a large one and the Portugese discovered it in January and they thought it was the mouth of river so that's how the city got its name- river of January. It was light out by 0600 and the ship pulled in to a choice spot at the pier. From the amount of luggage stacked out there they will be taking on a couple of hundred new passengers as this is the start of the Antarctic cruise season. Notable at dockside was the Stern's gemstone shop. They've had a couple of representatives on board and wanted you to make a free visit to their workshop. On my last Marco Polo trip my tablemates one night were 2 young ladies- a brunette from Brazil who had a degree in anthropology (didn't pay well enough) and a blonde from Poland who were hawking gemstones. So the story is that Brazil is the largest gemstone producer in the world and the tourists are big buyers.
Now the main object is to get you off the ship as soon as possible and try to keep you occupied for a couple of hours til the hotel rooms are ready. So shortly after 0800 go into the terminal, identify your bags and have them portered out to the truck that takes them to the hotel, while we get a tour of Rio. The weather cooperated for a cable car visit to Sugar Loaf Mountain (so named because it's shaped like the mounds of sugar they produce). Since it was early in the morning there was no waiting and the view was great. Could see most of the beaches from there and identified the Sheraton, where we would be staying for 2 nights, and noticed it was in a little bay with a private beach. Sterns had a store on Sugar Loaf and I priced a parrot about 8 inches high that was made of gemstones- it was only 1200 US$. Some people had signed up for a tour of Cuernavaca, a mountain with a huge statue of Christ the Redeemer on it. Unfortunately it was fogged in.
After arrival at the very nice hotel,I scouted around for other tours and none of the ones I wanted operated on the days I'd be there. Rosemary called my room and said they found a car we could rent to visit Petropolis the next day so Jane from the safari vehicle and Rosemary and Bill from the dinner table signed up for the next day. Decided not to do the 'Rio by night' tour again. The last time I went, they took us to a nightclub with a Samba stage show and I could still hear the drum beats for a week afterwards- there is a large segment of black Africans in Brazil and their music is incorporated into the culture- the natives didn't want to work so they brought over slaves for the sugar cane fields.
Was happy to see they had CNN and BBC at the hotel. I don't think I'll ever watch Fox News again. That's all we got on the ship and the Brits, Aussies and Kiwis had a great time having us explain what Fox was all about. Dinner at the outdoor restaurant at the hotel with a nice steak and discovered a new drink, a potent rum in lime juice, so slept well.
Yesterday was the last day on the ship and the weather was balmy as ever- Got to hear Jonathan's lecture on the Titanic (he'd been to Halifax Maritime museum also). They also showed the last segment- part 4- of the A&E production of the life of Napoleon. I now know more about him, but he is still an enigma. Was his real plan to unify Europe and establish the European Union 200 years before it happened? Was successful in using up all my internet minutes, so I counted it as a successful day. Did get suckered in to the entertainment after dinner because they advertised a variety show with the Broadway group and the male singer who was the screamer I walked out on at his first show. The Broadway group did one number and the remainder of the show was the screamer but I was hemmed in by the audience and couldn't eascape. Maybe it was just the sound system up to loud, but he was hard to take. Did meet the deadline of suitcase in the hall by midnite.
Sailed in the harbor of Rio at about 4:30 am and I was awake for it. Plenty of light so you can make out the landscape which is awesome in daylight and since I had seen it on my last trip I could pick out the landmarks. The bay is a large one and the Portugese discovered it in January and they thought it was the mouth of river so that's how the city got its name- river of January. It was light out by 0600 and the ship pulled in to a choice spot at the pier. From the amount of luggage stacked out there they will be taking on a couple of hundred new passengers as this is the start of the Antarctic cruise season. Notable at dockside was the Stern's gemstone shop. They've had a couple of representatives on board and wanted you to make a free visit to their workshop. On my last Marco Polo trip my tablemates one night were 2 young ladies- a brunette from Brazil who had a degree in anthropology (didn't pay well enough) and a blonde from Poland who were hawking gemstones. So the story is that Brazil is the largest gemstone producer in the world and the tourists are big buyers.
Now the main object is to get you off the ship as soon as possible and try to keep you occupied for a couple of hours til the hotel rooms are ready. So shortly after 0800 go into the terminal, identify your bags and have them portered out to the truck that takes them to the hotel, while we get a tour of Rio. The weather cooperated for a cable car visit to Sugar Loaf Mountain (so named because it's shaped like the mounds of sugar they produce). Since it was early in the morning there was no waiting and the view was great. Could see most of the beaches from there and identified the Sheraton, where we would be staying for 2 nights, and noticed it was in a little bay with a private beach. Sterns had a store on Sugar Loaf and I priced a parrot about 8 inches high that was made of gemstones- it was only 1200 US$. Some people had signed up for a tour of Cuernavaca, a mountain with a huge statue of Christ the Redeemer on it. Unfortunately it was fogged in.
After arrival at the very nice hotel,I scouted around for other tours and none of the ones I wanted operated on the days I'd be there. Rosemary called my room and said they found a car we could rent to visit Petropolis the next day so Jane from the safari vehicle and Rosemary and Bill from the dinner table signed up for the next day. Decided not to do the 'Rio by night' tour again. The last time I went, they took us to a nightclub with a Samba stage show and I could still hear the drum beats for a week afterwards- there is a large segment of black Africans in Brazil and their music is incorporated into the culture- the natives didn't want to work so they brought over slaves for the sugar cane fields.
Was happy to see they had CNN and BBC at the hotel. I don't think I'll ever watch Fox News again. That's all we got on the ship and the Brits, Aussies and Kiwis had a great time having us explain what Fox was all about. Dinner at the outdoor restaurant at the hotel with a nice steak and discovered a new drink, a potent rum in lime juice, so slept well.
posted by DT at 7:23 AM
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