January 26 and 27

Sugar Loaf from Cocordova

Rio from Corcordova

January 26 and 27
We had been advised to be up on deck early in the morning for the sail in to Guanabara Bay. When Portuguese explorers first sailed into the bay on January 1, 1501 they thought they were in the mouth of a large river. Hence the name, Rio de Janeiro, River of January.
As we sailed in we spied Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) above the clouds as well as Sugar Loaf and a hint of the cable car to the top. We were later to find out that the statute of Christ can be seen from almost anywhere in Rio. As can Sugar Loaf.

We approached the terminal with the dock on the port side and just as it appeared that we would run into the dock head-on the Captain swung the ship around and we tided up starboard side to. It was all rather remarkable. And impressive.
With no tour until afternoon, we wandered the streets around the terminal (not a very impressive areas), had lunch and then boarded a bus for the Cruise Specialist tour of the city and Sugar Loaf Mountain.
First stop ---- Catedral Metropolitana. This rather strange looking cathedral was constructed from 1964-1976 . Its radical style (it was called an upside down ice cream cone) was quite unpopular with local Catholics until a pope (maybe John) came to Rio and endorsed the structure. Inside it rises to 248 feet at the center with no interior columns. The cathedral has seating for 5,000 and will accommodate 20,000 standing. About the only ornamentation are four stained-glass windows which form a cross at the apex.
It was then on to Sugar Loaf Mountain. The Portuguese name for the mountain is Pao de Acucar. It is 1,300 feet high. Two separate cable cars are necessary to get to the top. The first ride takes you up 700 feet. You get off there and think the view of Rio is spectacular. Then you take the second cable car to the top and WOW! You can see all of Rio---the beaches, the statue of Cristo Redentor, the harbor, a race track, the soccer stadium, the apartment buildings and the favelas where the poor people live. Of course, there are the obligatory souvenir shops and a restaurant. We were fortunate as we had little rain and a fairly clear day with no sun. With or without sun, it was still pretty warm and steamy. We were told that with the sun it would have been unbearable.
Here’s what I wrote to Alexis’ third grade class about Rio (with a couple of additions.) As usual, I am sure the pictures won’t be in the correct places but I’ll keep trying.
From the top of Sugar Loaf we could look across to Corcovada Mountain. Corcovada is 2296 feet high. Perched on the top is the famous icon of Rio, the Statute of Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer. The statute is 130 feet tall and weighs 700 tons. It is made of concrete and covered with soapstone. The Brazilians started in in 1926 and didn’t finish it until 1931.
This is Christ the Redeemer as we saw it from Sugar Loaf. It was almost hidden in the clouds. The people who went up it the day I took this picture couldn’t see the city or beaches below because of all the clouds. They said it was like being in an airplane above the clouds.
We were lucky when we went because this is what we saw.
To get to the statute we had to take a cog railway trail through a jungle forest. It is the largest forest in the world that is in the middle of a city. As we were going up and down the mountain we saw many strange fruits and plants. This is what is called a jack fruit.
We had it one day on the ship. Yuck (in my opinion).
After we got off the train we had to take two escalators to get to the very top. Again, WOW what a view.
The cable car up Sugar Loaf Mountain and the railway up to the statute were nice but Carnival is fun. The people in Rio pronounce it Car knee val. And they love Carnival!
(remember this was written for 8 year olds)
Carnival is a celebration held in Rio and many other places in the world 40 days before Easter and marks the start of Lent. It started in Rio with groups of poor people who were making fun of how the rich held fancy balls and masquerade parties. That was in the 1800s. The celebration grew and grew and grew and now thousands if not millions of people celebrate carnival in Rio.
Carnival is all about the samba schools and the parade. In Rio today there are twelve samba schools. They are not really schools but are clubs with thousands of people in each one. They are large, well-financed organizations that work about eight months of the year to prepare for Carnival. For the carnival parade each samba school chooses a theme, makes enormous floats, has bands, dancers, beautiful girls (many half or more naked) , drums, and gorgeous costumes. The parade is a contest to see which of the schools is the best. This year’s themes will include evolution, fairy tales, the history of drums plus 9 others I forget.
Each school has about 3,000 people marching in the parade. Each schools parade lasts about 80 minutes. During the entire 80 minutes the performers must keep dancing, playing and smiling all the time. The parade is held two nights with six samba schools performing each night. 6 x 3,000 equals a lot of performers. On top of that, the Sambodroma holds 43,000 people.
And what, you ask, is the Sambodromo? Rio de Janeiro built a huge stadium (in just 120 days) to hold the carnival parade. It is called the Sambodromo and is just like a city street with seats and bleachers on both sides. The cheapest seats are about $30 and the most expensive one in “boxes” with air conditioning, food and drinks can cost $1,000 a person. Because so many people in Rio are very poor and can’t afford to go to the Sambodromo there are many parties and bands all over the city.
Huge traffic jams occurred when the samba schools took their floats and people to the Sambodromo for the parade. In 2006 the city built what they call the Cidade de Samba. There are 12 gargantuan buildings, one for each school. The doors are 12 feet high to get the floats in and out.
We went to the Cidade de Samba and saw costumes and floats from past carnivals. They let us look at some of the floats they are making for this year’s parade but we couldn’t take pictures because everything is supposed to be a secret. Oddly enough, the second tour group of the day was allowed to take pictures but had to promise not to publish them or give them to competing schools. Since the themes of the schools were known to our tour guide I couldn’t understand why all the secrecy.
Here are some pictures of the costumes and things that were on last year’s floats.
The dresses are very beautiful but can you imagine how heavy they are….and how hot they must be.
Oh, forgot I said I would tell you about the favelas. I am not sure if that is how you spell it. The poor people cannot afford houses in the city so they build little houses and shacks on the hillside. In America, the most expensive houses are high on the hills because people want to look out but in Rio the poorest people have the best view. The favelas are dangerous places if you don’t know your way around. There are about 800 favelas in Rio
where 150,000 people live. That’s a lot of people.
In this picture of the Cidade de Samba you can see a favela on the hillside.
End of school report.
Rio is crowded and noisy, and exuberant. After all it is home to 11 million people. The beat of the samba is heard everywhere. People seem to walk to the beat and while waiting for traffic lights to change their feet are moving to the beat. I think everyone wears platform shoes, even little kids in platform flip flops.
The carnival parades have a set order. There is the instrument section, (the Baterie), made up mostly of drums with rattles, tambourines and notched sticks added. The Passista girls dance to the samba beat in front of the instruments. The girls are very scantly dressed but complete nudity is forbidden (and they push the envelope), explicit sexuality is banned but not much else. One year a performer lost her pasties and the school was fined a half point. (We had a samba show on board the ship and I couldn’t believe the incredible bodies on both the men and women dancers. Needless to say, none of the men even noticed their platform shoes.)
Back to the parade order. After the Passitas come the floats. The “Destaques” are on the floats in the most expensive and incredible costumes. A celebrity or famous person may also be on a float.
We drove past Ipanema Beach, the Carmen Miranda Museum, numerous cathedrals and stopped at Copacabana Beach. The beaches were long, sandy, wide but on the cloudy day not covered in bodies and people like you see in the movies. Rio has more than a little bit of everything and a person could spend weeks there and not see it all.