Rhonda: Our tour today was to Christ the Redeemer by van, Sugarloaf, Maracanã, Sambadrome, Cathedral, Selarón, and Lunch at a Steakhouse. But not in that order. They mixed it up to avoid all the people from cruise ships that were here today.
So first was an hour of picking up the other 17 people on the tour. I slept through most of it. We went to Sugarloaf mountain first.
It was fun. There are two cable cars to get you up to the top. Each holds 35 people. The 360 view from each level was breathtaking. And since it's very hot and humid here the 10a beer on Sugarloaf was the best beer ever.
Chris: Sugarloaf Mountain got it's name from Spanish sailors who thought it looked like the sugarloafs, or what we would call bundles I guess, they were bringing from Africa. The cable car rides to the top were really fun, a bit hot with everyone crammed in the car but worth it for the view.
The domestic airport is close and the landing airplanes turned toward the airport right in front of us and below us. It was really cool, especially for someone who is a bit of an avgeek like me. You don't often get to look down on landing airplanes.
The views from the top are just amazing, we knew it would be pretty here but, as with so many things on this trip, we were not prepared for just how beautiful it is. The mountains on the mainland come down at waters edge to beautiful white sand beaches. Then off shore there are countless beautiful islands, some small some big enough to have their own mountain. We could have stayed up there all day.
The next stop was at a more bohemian
neighborhood with narrow streets and colorful murals. It was fast paced, crowded, a little sketchy and just wonderful. It's main feature is Escadaria Selaron, 206 steps climbing up a hill covered in 2000 tiles from all the countries that participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics. They are all just random tiles, there is no theme. We saw two from New Orleans for example. On was Bourbon Street the other was The French Quarter. It was really pretty and I just wish that there were not so many other people who thought the same thing. It was crowded and impossible to get a good picture but we really enjoyed them. Then we got a street mango drink with what had to be everclear, but it was very good and refreshing. We bought a few trinkets then it was time to move on.
Rhonda: Before we moved on, our meeting place was a souvenir shop that gave free tastings of a liquor made from cane sugar. Whew-ew. It was like shots of tequila. But there were lots of flavors . Odd but great was the green corn flavor. It really smelled and tasted like fresh corn.
Then we went to this weird cathedral that looks like a pyramid made of concrete but had beautiful stained glass on the inside. We drove by the
Marcacana Olympic stadium. It once held 210,000 people but now it's down to 80,000. There have been soccer world cups and the opening and closing ceremonies of 2016 Olympics there. We also saw the Sambadrome where they hold the Carnival parades. Then on to lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse. It was much like the Argentinian gaucho lunch we had but I have to say Argentina beats Brazil on the beef.
Chris: Next we went to the Rio biggie, Christ the Redeemer, or as a guy from Australia we overheard on his phone in our hotel bar tonight called it, that Jesus on the hill thing. If you come to Rio you have to go, I think it's actually a law although I'm not completely sure about that. And I'm glad we went, it's iconic, I mean, how many times has it been on the Amazing Race ? And it's always really cool to see things you've seen all your life on tv and in movies and books etc. Like the Coliseum in Rome or the Eiffel Tower in Paris and now we can add that Jesus on on the hill thing. We've seen The David and the Coliseum and the Eiffel Tower and I just don't think the big guy in Rio measures up. He's big, one hundred feet tall and his arm span is one hundred feet, they started it in 1931 and that's impressive, that they figured out how to do it almost one hundred years ago. But it's blocky and really void of amazing artistic detail. We got to the top of the mountain via bus and looked at the Jesus thing then spent the rest of our time marveling at the view. There were actually clouds below us and one rolled across the mountain while we were on the top. But the statue itself kinda fell in the ridiculous impressive folly category for us. Impressive that that they could build that, but really why ? But the beer at the restaurant next to the souvenir shop was cold and hit the spot. That Jesus on the hill thing salt and pepper shakers anyone ?
Rhonda:
The guide said there are 4 temperatures here. Hot, very hot, very very hot and hell. Today is very very hot. Sunday will be hell. I believe him. I was wringing wet before lunch time. Oh, 4 people on this tour will be on our cruise! How fun!
We had thought about scheduling a boat trip to an island for tomorrow but we blew it off. We are "toured" out. So we plan on sleeping a little later and spending a day on the beach followed by a samba show at night. We are making notes of things we forgot or left out for brevity to write when we have days at sea. We haven't even finished talking about Iguazu falls!
Love y'all.
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