A Note… this trip started with 23 hours in transit from San Francis to Rio… then 8 hours on a guided tour… then we checked in aboard the ship, cleaned up, had dinner, walked about, took a shower… as I update this its 10:00 pm or so in Rio… I am sitting on our balcony… it’s hot… nearly 90 degrees… I can see “Christ the Redemer” floating above the city… It will be sometime tomorrow before I can find an internet connection and post this… There will be times along the way that it will be a couple of days between blog posts… in between I will keep writing…
That being said, it all started at the airport, SFO, Saturday, early morning… We should go back there…
Saturday, January 9, 2010
We are at the airport… We have left…
It’s a bit disorienting… up early, so far no coffee (Tina is off dealing with this) a large pile of “stuff” a backpack, a computer bag, at my feet… So the journey begins… small suitcase and a large purse… All the stuff too precious for the cargo hold… so now we schlep it through security, across the airport, and down the jet way.
It’s a bit exotic, when checking it, “where are you going” “Rio”… Casablanca would have been cooler but Rio is a good answer…
We are carrying too much stuff… but its 3 weeks, and we need our stuff…
So far it’s unreal…
International travel is exotic… it’s special, but before we travel internationally we have to get to Atlanta… and that is a typical domestic trip… We are flying on Delta rather than my beloved Virgin America… I can see a Virgin plane at its gate across the tarmac.
Most journeys begin this way… I think it’s the pull of home… you need to break away, away from the common… so it goes…
This trip is different… I am not “connected” … here at the airport the wireless it T-Mobil… I left my phone at home… Driving across New Mexico and Arkansas I had internet access… at SFO I don’t…
Now airborne… Delta is calling the cabin crew or at least the head stew “customer service coordinators” … What’s wrong with “Flight Attendant”? They now talk of AED’s… better known as “approved electronic devices.” Regular readers of the blog know that I can be critical of airlines… Delta did a pretty good job.
We had a very long layover in Atlanta… so we took the MARTA the local subway downtown. Atlanta was dead…. It’s Saturday, and the offices were closed as were most shops including the Starbucks… We walked around the Atlanta Underground, which was a bust… It was cold… 29 degrees with a strong wind… Leon, a homeless guy pointed us towards Centennial Park… We found the Ted Turner Building, complete with Ted’s restaurant, Bison, which curiously features bison on the menu… We had a nice lunch. Feeling much better about Atlanta we found the subway station and went back to the airport, cleared security, and rendezvoused with the rest of our group… Tina’s sisters, Tanya and Karin, and her brother Sig and his wife Toby…
A bit after 8:00 pm we started to board the plane… It was chaotic as any airline boarding experience seems to be these days, but pretty well handled… I am finding that Delta is doing a good job… blankets and pillows on each seat… sufficient room for carry-ons, a helpful crew… They serve dinner including wine or beer, plus breakfast some hours later… the crew is fluent in English and Portuguese.
Now, Sunday, January 10, 2010, late…
We landed a bit after 9:00 local time… we waited in longish lines for immigration… (Rio has a reputation for very long lines… these weren’t… ) We grabbed our checked luggage… we had too much, three bags, the sisters had more, Sig and Toby less… schlepped everything though customs with a wave through… then out where we met our guide Neyla… Tina had researched local guides though Cruise Critics… she came highly recommended, by several people including one we had cruised with before, and trusted… She was a good choice… we gathered the bags, got out to the curb where she had a mini bus… The checked bags took one row of seats… Pulling out of the airport we headed downtown to the cruise dock where we dropped the checked bags, then continued on our tour…
At first Rio seemed a difficult, run down and chaotic… It soon proved otherwise… We started by visiting the Carnival competition facility… Carnival, the Brazilian Lenten festival has outgrown street parades… (they still have street parades too) so the Samba competition has its own facility, a 5 or 6 block long street like facility with grandstands and skyboxes… they had repainted the street white in preparation for this year’s celebration… there were several floats present for practice… we visited one of the “Schools” where Tina and I tried on costumes and had our photos taken…
From there we headed to the ‘Christ the Redeemer” a 90’ tall statue of Christ, arms out, so forming a cross on the top of a local hill, overlooking the city… to get to the top you either take a train… an electrified rack railroad, or drive up in a minivan… we took the train… As a certified guide Neyla could get tickets without standing in line… so the wait wasn’t bad… the train runs through the jungle on its climb to the top… Most of the other guests were locals… always a good sign… At the top you can either climb stairs or take an elevator the last 100 feet or so… we got to the top, where the statue loomed over everything… the view was incredible… It was a good choice… We took the train back down… we talked to locals… most learn English in school, but are afraid to use it at first. We stopped in the pharmacy across the plaza for water bottles, a coke for Tanya and ice creams all around… The site had parking police, municipal police, and tourist police… there was a disagreement about the charge for parking… the Tourist Police, a federal police force, handled it… of course they had machine guns…
At night they light the statue only… right now (11:00 pm or so) it is floating in the blackness above the city…
From Christ the Redeemer we drive over to the “Hippie Market” a 1960’s craft market… nothing catches our fancy, but we take pictures of the Santa in a bathing suit statue, and I try some local food, a bean paste shell filled with corn mush deep fried with a sauce with tiny shrimp (complete with shells and in some cases heads) It was good… only Tina tried a bite…
From there we drove along Ipanema and Coco Cabana Beaches… then to the tram station for Sugar Loaf… Sugar Loaf is a rock at the entrance to the harbor… to get there to take a pair of aerial tramways… again, the view was spectacular, the ride fun, and we saw an monkey at the top…
Back down, back through town… this time in the area behind the downtown… I wanted to see the 1870’s aqueduct… It now is a bridge for a tram line… Nearby Nelya took us to a local artist’s project, “The Selaron Stairway” a stairway completely covered in tile and mosaic. Selaron, the artist was present, selling drawings, paintings and tiles… He is known for his drawings of pregnant black women… We purchased a tile from him, and took photos… The stairs have been well covered in the media… They were featured on an episode of CSI Miami… He has a web site at www.escadariaselaron.com.br
On the street at the bottom of the stairs a neighborhood Samba band was practicing… both for Carnival and for the party that evening…
We toured for a bit longer, then a bit after 7:00 Nelya dropped us at the pier to check in… there were no lines… we were on the ship quickly… our luggage was already in our room… We washed up, changed, went to dinner… Having eaten, we explored, unpacked and showered…
Now Midnight… Still on the balcony… Still sweltering… Christ the Redeemer is still hovering over the city… I have a single malt on the table, I have Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto’s “Girl from Ipanema” playing on my computer. There was a fireworks show over the city a few minutes ago. This is fast becoming a special trip.
Now Monday, January 11, 2010
I was up early… for coffee on deck… the ship is asleep, as most people are on vacation and taking it easy… just across the docks Rio is awake, bustling and noisy… it’s a stark contrast.
I tried to find a stray internet signal, and failed, so now I will go down stairs to the internet café aboard and post this…
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