Rio
de Janeiro
Lesley is feeling a bit better this morning, but Stuart
has come down with the gastro, so he had a couple of pieces of toast with
vegemite which he had brought with him. Lesley meanwhile only had one small
piece of toast!
After breakfast it was off to the cable cars to Sugarloaf
Mountain - you know, the ones in the James Bond movie Moonraker, where James
Bond fights the baddie on top of the cable car. They fall off (?) and land in
Iguacu Falls (which in reality is a 3hr plane flight away!). As usual our
guides had us arriving just as they were opening, so we beat the crowds again.
The view would have been great, but for the low cloud and lack of wind following
the rain of yesterday. After seeing where the airport is located, on reclaimed
land with water at each end of the short runways, we know why the pilots put on
full reverse thrust once on the ground!
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| Sugarloaf |
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| Christ Redeemer statue sits on the pimple in the middle of photo |
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| Copacabana Beach from Sugarloaf |
We returned down the mountain to the bus, and then we
were off via a round-about route taking in the town historic highlights to the
cog-wheel train to “Christ the Redeemer” statue. The local guide had already
pre-booked tickets on the 11am train. This is an amazing statue, so tall and
imposing. It is made of soapstone-covered concrete, though have no idea how it
was actually done, and then put in place atop this rock! Brazilians are
understandably very proud of it. Once again the low cloud obliterated the view
for much of the time. Glimpses of the city below were enticing. We saw the
stadium where the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games will be held. [Speaking
of which, there is a lot of roadworks and infrastructure happen in Rio de
Janeiro and we wonder if it will be finished for the Olympic Games.]
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| This pattern is seen everywhere |
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| this wiring wouldn't pass in Aus - almost as bad as Peru |
From the Christ statue, we were taken into the business
district for a buffet lunch at a very popular cafeteria - “Confeitaria Colombo”.
Stuart still not feeling well, had a specially delivered soup, whilst Lesley
partook a little of the buffet. After lunch it was a walk through part of the
city (crossing construction work for their new light rail – you could see the
old timber sleepers from the tramlines of 30 years ago) to the main Cathedral
(Catholic of course) which seats around 5,000 people, or 12,000 standing. It
has only been full three times. It is not your average cathedral, being very
tall and conical in shape, with myriads of little windows all up the side to
keep it cool. The altar is in the centre, with seating 7/8 of the way around. A
small chapel is behind the altar.
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Catholic Cathedral - conical in shape (bell tower to right)
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| detail of the windows - open to elements, to let out hot air and bring in cool air |
Back on the bus to the hotel and a short snooze before a
casual stroll along the Copacabana Beach (across the road) and getting our feet
wet in the South Atlantic Ocean. The beach is over 5km long and 100m wide, with
vendors every 100m. They push spear points into the sand and suck up fresh
water which they use to wet the sand from the road to their vending point, plus
provide water to wash feet etc. 98% of the women (didn’t matter what their body
shape or age) were in bikinis of all sizes.
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| Feet in the Atlantic Ocean |
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| Our hotel, Copacabana Palace, in the middle |
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| looking along Copacabana Beach from one end |
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| Beach hawker selling bikinis |
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| Another hawker selling cover-ups |
After returning to the hotel and showering, Lesley went
out to dinner with three others from the group (this time Stuart stayed behind) to an Italian restaurant around
the corner from the hotel. None of us were particularly hungry so we ordered
three dishes and shared. This was enough for us all, and the total cost each
was $8US! An indication of this restaurant’s popularity was the queue when we
left at 8pm (we got there just after 7pm because Brazilians don’t eat that
early, yet it was already ¾ full then).
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