Oldies On Tour

A slow start to the morning, breakfast as usual then some decisions to make, where should we go. Swimming off Copacabana sounded good but then Christi

ne suggested the Botanical Gardens; so the Botanical Gardens it is!

Before I go on, I’d like to mention a very nice local drink I am enjoying, made from cane sugar, a sort of rum with flavours; mine are honey and cinnamon, very nice. I enquired if it is

exported, “no” they said, “all drunk in Brazil”, I wonder why!!!!!

Back to today.   Our chosen mode of transport was to be the

local buses, and number 584 was the one. We caught it 2 blocks away from our hotel, and it took us to the entrance of the Botanical gardens. It was an interesting bus ride I have to say. As we entered we paid the driver the fare, 3.40 Reals each, (about 76 pence) and then we walked through a turnstile and all this as the driver was pulling away. Accelerate hard, brake hard, accelerate hard, brake hard and whilst doing that, he weaved through the traffic; now you might think we had a lunatic for a driver, but no, they were all at it, the start of a F1 race had nothing on these drivers. The only blessing was that the seats were padded, a little!!! Still after a very hairy ride we arrived in one piece.

These Botanical Gardens are a 350-acre site, founded in 1808 by King John 6^th of Portugal and in 1822 became open to

the Public. The park lies at the foot of the Corcovado Mountain, far below the right arm of the statue of Christ the Redeemer. Not being too interested in gardening I was a little apprehensive about this; walking in the heat looking at plants I had little or nothing in common with, didn’t exactly fill my boat, still it had to be done for Christine’s sake but I did insist on a cup of coffee before we started.

We paid our entry fee and in we went and I soon realised it wasn’t a garden centre type place at all; it was basically a controlled environment for all the species of trees and other

plants that are found in Brazil. These gardens contain more than 6,000 different species of tropical and subtropical plants and trees, including 900 varieties of palm trees. As we walked round we picked up on a few things in particular. The first was the pernambuco tree; apparently the wood from this tree is the best wood available to make high-class violin “bows”. In addition to this, the wood yields a deep purple-red dye, which was in high demand in 17^th century Europe. I also wanted to see the Brazil nut tree. Normally nuts grow individually such as hazelnuts and walnuts etc., but Brazil nuts grow in a husk, rather like a brown coconut, the sort one can see at a fairground in the UK. We found the “one” Brazil nut tree but none were visible to see, but it was a very tall tree; what a shame.

Before we set off I read about the 750-meter line of 134 palms,

align=”alignleft” width=”150″] Amazing to see so many palm trees[/caption]which form the “Avenue of Royal Palms” leading from the entrance into the gardens. These palms are all descended from a “single tree”, the Palma Mater, long since destroyed by lightning. If we were going to the Gardens this was on the must see list, and how spectacular this palm tree lined avenue was. These particular palms have no bark as we know it, they are just plain trunks with foliage at the top, oh, by the way, the top is 50 meters above the ground; fabulous. Because of their height, some of the avenue has large stainless steel mirrors angled so you can see the tops without bending backwards, I hasten to add; we “looked” up.

We were a little disappointed with the Orchid house, perhaps it

is the wrong time of the year but we were impressed with the giant water lilies though I did get a rocket from one of the stewards for standing on the grass to get a ‘photo!!!

Only about 40% of the park is cultivated, the rest being part

of the remaining Atlantic rain Forest and it rises up the slopes of Corcovado. The park is protected by the Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional and was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1992.

Whilst wandering through this park we came upon the smallest monkeys we have ever seen, “The Tufted Ear Marmoset’s” we think. There were a pair sharing a banana and a, presumably a mother, with the tiniest baby on her back. They were so tame, there was quite a crowd around them all taking ‘photos but they didn’t flinch.

As I said at the top, I wasn’t particularly enamored at the prospect of visiting these gardens but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you Christine for suggesting this visit.

Next we were advised to visit the “Parque Lage”. Parque Lage is a public park in the city of Rio, located close to the Botanical Gardens. The land was formerly the residence of the wealthy industrialist, “Enrique Lage” and his wife; the Italian opera singer “Gabriella Besanzoni” (1888 – 1962).

To get here we took another bus as Google maps told us it would take 36 minutes to walk, but as I have said before that doesn’t take the “heat” into account. Straight onto the bus, same fare, through the turnstile, hanging on for dear life until planted in a seat. 5 minutes later we were outside the park. This house was quite something, the courtyard in the middle of the building was a swimming pool, though it hadn’t

got a modern pumping system, the water was rather green. We had a good look around the outside then headed off for the bus back to our hotel feeling very happy with our day.

I looked on Google maps and it suggested the bus we arrived on actually went in one big circle so we crossed to the bus stop opposite. Our bus arrived and before we parted with the huge sum of 6.80 Reals, we checked with the driver if this was our bus; no he said and told us the bus number we wanted.   After an inordinate amount of time our bus arrived and we checked again, no said the driver we needed the 583, on the other side of the road. Oh well here we go again but this bus came along fairly quickly and after checking with the driver that it was OK, boarded. Because the traffic was getting heavy due to the time, he didn’t take off like a maniac so we got into our seats un-aided this time!

Google maps told us when to get off and 5 minutes later we “should” have been in our hotel, but were waylaid by activities going on in the local park. We went to investigate and watched numerous groups of 4’s playing cards and draughts. Draughts we knew but the card game baffled us, it seemed as if each table of 4 players were playing with 4 packs of cards; as our Portuguese is non-existent and very few people speak English, we decided not to ask.   As we were leaving the park

we were stopped dead in our tracks by a cordoned off area, firstly we thought it was a children’s play area but realised it was an adult play area, in fact it was full of various machines for people to do their work outs: no need to go to Virgin here in Rio, the equipment is in the park for free!!!!

Hotel next for a wash and brush up then out to an earlyish dinner, nothing exotic, we had all that with the cruise ship; plain and simple for the next few weeks and hopefully lose some of our un-wanted pounds.

Again another very successful day today, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will sleep well tonight; tomorrow is our last day in Rio.

 

Up and at ‘em this morning, early breakfast and waiting for our “all day tour” of Rio de Janeiro to begin. We did consider a ½ day tour as it basically covered much of what we wanted but with minimal stops, whereas the whole day did a little more, plus more time at vantage points and included lunch, all for an additional 50 Reals each: no contest.

We were down in reception at the appointed hour and we were picked up and marched to the tourist office, uh? We were told there would be a car or van to do this, oh dear we thought, have we picked a dud. Anyway at the office we met our tour guide, Julio, a fluent English speaker so things started to look up; he then marched us to our coach, a very modern, comfortable coach and off we set to collect a few more passengers.   Once all aboard he gave us a quick summary of the day’s events in Portuguese, English and Spanish, a very accomplished young man.

First stop, the Sugar Loaf Mountain, a two cable car trip. Being on the tour certainly paid dividends, he had the tickets and we were on our way, no queuing here. We arrived at the first stop and had 20 minutes to get acclimatised to the thinner air and look around; ha ha! There were 2 old cable cars on display; the first one was built in 1912 and carried 22

passengers and was used until 1972; so, this would have been the one I went up in when I was 5, back in 1949; it was very open and obviously a risk to health & safety; how my mother kept me sitting down, or more importantly, kept me in that car, I know not how! The second one was used from 1972 to 2008 and was featured in Moonraker (James Bond film). They continue with those introduced in 2008, which carries 65 passengers, and travels the distance in ½ the time.

Next up to the rarefied atmosphere at the top. Wow the views are stunning all round, the domestic airport, 2 of the 4 forts built by the Portuguese, Copacabana beach, a couple of marinas, most of Rio and much, much more. Having had a good long look round we grabbed a coffee and started the decent, arriving at the bottom we were picked up by our driver. When we booked we had to take pot luck with the weather; though warm we are surrounded by rain forest and we could have been unfortunate and suffered clouds etc., but no, we had a beautiful, extremely hot, clear sky; couldn’t have been better.

The sugar loaf mountain is one of the iconic sites in the world; it stands at the mouth of Guanabara Bay and rises 396 meters straight up from the Atlantic. The reason it is called the “Sugar Loaf Mountain”, apparently, is that it reminded folk back in the day, of the traditional shape of a concentrated, refined sugar loaf.   This became a World Heritage Site in 2012.

Next stop the Metropolitan Cathedral, a monumental modern building seating a congregation of 5,000; certainly not a conventional cathedral but apparently very well appreciated by the 6.5 million local population.

I think it’s time for a little background to Rio. The Portuguese rulers were the first ones to rule Rio as they landed on the soil of Guanabara Bay on the 1st January 1502. The bay forms the opening of a river, hence the name “Rio de Janeiro” which means “River of January”.

In 1555 the French sent a posse of 500 troops to get a piece of the action and a foothold was established by occupying the largest Island in Guanabara Bay. The Portuguese finally kicked them out in 1563 and to ensure there were no more trespassers they built a ring of forts around the bay, which were so well designed and sited, nothing could get past them from the sea.

In the earliest part of the 18^th century Gold and Diamond mining took place, which gave the area a big economical boost and at the same time drew in hundreds of European settlers, but this was short lived. Towards the end of the 18^th century the mines started to fall into disrepair and the towns economy drifted away. Everything is cyclical though, in 1808 Coffee was the thing to be in and the Rio Economy boomed again. Brazil got its independence from Portugal in 1815 and from that time Rio not only prospered but it laid the foundation of what the city has become today.

On our way our guide pointed out the Countries War Memorial dedicated to those who died fighting in the war. I thought Portugal was neutral during the war, and Brazil was Portuguese so assumed they were neutral as well, so at the first opportunity I was going to “collar” our man and find out more. It turns out Brazil sent 25,700 troops in 1943 to “help” the Americans in the Italian campaign; 943 were killed in action and many of their remains are in this memorial: you learn something every day!!!

Our next stop was the “Escadaria Selarón”, also known as the ‘Selaron Steps’. These are a flight of world-famous, decorated steps, and are the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who took 15 years to complete the tiled decorations. He claimed it as “my tribute to the Brazilian people” Unfortunately due to depression he toped himself in 2013 though his spirit lives on, here in Rio.

Driving to the steps we passed the Carioca Aqueduct, which was built in 1723, during “colonial Brazil” to help solve the problem of water shortage in the city. If you didn’t know, you would have thought the Romans had been here! Today the

Aqueduct carries a light train or tram up to the upper district .

Next stop lunch, we were told we were having a bar-b-q at Copacabana, but before I go on I must mention that round the corner from our hotel is, what looks like a very nice Churasscarias, and we decided we would try it towards the end of the week; you know when we can do it justice. Anyway we got off the coach near the tour office and followed Julio down the road, round the corner and bless my soul we went into the Churasscarias we had been talking about. Well it was marvellous; the various meats just kept coming until we just couldn’t eat another thing. I know there is an Argentinian one in La Zenia but this was the real deal, here in Brazil. Over the years that we have done coach tours that include lunch, none have come anywhere near as high a standard as this lunch, well done “RioLine”

Waddling out of “Carretao Classic Grill” we headed for the coach and onto our next port of call, the Maracanã football

stadium, built for the 1950 inaugural FIFA world cup. Judging by what we were told, Brazil, with its very posh and big stadium was confident of winning that tournament, but at 1 all, in the last few seconds Uruguay scored the winning goal. This still rankles and I remember this still being talked about in Uruguay when we were there a few years ago!!!!!!!   Not being that interested in Football and having seen numerous stadiums around the world, we rested our stomachs and stopped on the coach.

Now we were on our way the Corcovado but stopped to see the 1 km avenue, lined with “permanent” concrete stands

where the Rio Carnival passes by and the floats, costumes etc., are judged.

We arrived at the base of the Corcovado Mountain and changed our mode of transport from a coach to a train. This train was inaugurated in 1884 and cuts through Tijuca’s National Park, a part of the so-called Atlantic Rain Forest, or what’s left of it!! The “Puffing Billy’s” were replaced with electric trains in 1910, but in 1979 the current, more modern and safer trains were imported from Switzerland.

This single tracked railway with passing places delivered us to the top with ease and now I thought, ‘Oh God’, I have millions of steps to climb and I cant think of an excuse not to go. But to my delight and great surprise they have installed lifts to the base; thank the lord, this saves climbing the 220 steps

that we were reliably informed were waiting.

We get out of the lift at the base; well below the base actually, but I think to myself, I can do the last few, but no. We spotted an escalator; wow how good is that? It was a two-stage escalator, but I’ll forgive them for that, then hey presto, we are walking around the base of this monster statute. To get a better angle of the statute there were mats supplied for people to lie on and take a picture; well done Christine for entering the spirit of it.

Christ the Redeemer’s construction started in 1922 and was completed in 1931, though the original idea was muted by a Vincentian priest, Pedro Maria Boss, in the mid 1850’s. The statute stands 38 meters tall on its plinth, and on top of mount Corcovado, that itself is 710 meters above sea level. This monument became one of the 7 new wonders of the world in 2007.

Joking aside, I would have been mad not to have climbed the steps had there not been a lift. I thought the views from Sugar Loaf were stunning, but these are even more stunning, though you cant see too much detail, you get a far better prospective of Rio de Janeiro and its surrounding water, islands and its sheer size.

Again the weather couldn’t have been better, yes there was a heat haze but nothing to what it could have been, surrounded in

clouds more often than not.

Back down on the railway, Christine was fascinated by large round yellow/greenish, presumably some sort of fruit, but not sure. That is her task to find out.

We were dropped off our coach a little after 1800hrs, just round the corner from our hotel so we popped into “our” local restaurant for a coffee and tea supported by those wonderful Portuguese custardy tarts, yummy yummy.

Back to our room, its getting past our bed time and we are thoroughly knackered after a fantastic day enjoying Rio.

Tomorrow: well we’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Up fairly early this morning due to there being some sort of commotion in the corridor outside our room which woke us up, well Christine actually, I didn’t hear anything, but once awake, tea pops into her mind!!! Still the bonus of being a little earlier than normal, we had the pick of the tables.

Our two objectives today were to organise a tour and to find a doctor.

Organising a tour was painfully easy as the tour operator has their office on the other side of the block of flats in front of us so we were there a few minutes after leaving the hotel. After looking at what’s available we plumped for a full day tour taking in the important sites and providing a Brazilian bar-b-q at lunchtime. The good news is we are picked up from the hotel at 8.50.

After a quick pit stop at our hotel, we strolled the 4 blocks inland to find the walk-in clinic where we were processed, and booked into their system very quickly and efficiently. That’s when it ended, as we joined a number of locals also waiting to see the doctor. Still about an hour later we were ushered into the “room” where we tried in our poorest Portuguese and his equally poor English explain what the issue was and what had already happened to Christine. Anyway after the stethoscope was used and he prodded her about and asked questions that we had to guess what they were, then answer them, hoping he understood, he gave her a 2-item prescription; strong antibiotics and something for her sinus and after collecting them we marched straight into a coffee shop for a snack as she should only take the strong antibiotic’s after food.

Back at the hotel and just as she was about to open the package, she noticed the Chemist had given her 500mg but the prescription called for 750mg, so we traipsed back to the chemist to correct things. Anyway we got back to the hotel, she took her first dose, and now we are hoping for a miracle.

The afternoon was much about chilling, getting up to date with “Oldies on Tour” getting some printing done and generally chilling, giving those antibiotic’s time to work.

We strolled over to the beach seafood restaurant again and whilst eating watched a Brazilian version of Beach Volleyball; very interesting though I suspect Christine was captivated by the bronze coloured bodies, of the men with bristling biceps and Six packs; still she walked back with me!!!

We decided to watch a film “What we did on Holiday” but there was insufficient volume on the edition that was on YouTube; probably a pirate copy.

Have to be up early tomorrow, tour day around Rio, hooray!!!

 

We both woke but still felt a little groggy, still, onward and upward, we don’t have too long here. The first thing we did was look up at the sky but there was too much low cloud so a trip the Corcovado (The statute of Christ) or Sugar Loaf was a non-starter.

After breakfast we decided to stroll to Ipanema beach, try and

find “that girl”, Google maps said it would take about ½ an hour; well Google maps doesn’t take the heat into account. Though the sky was a little cloudy the heat was intense and when we eventually arrived at the far end of Copacabana beach we were pleased to see an open shopping Mall. Here we found a little refuge with the Air Con and decent toilets.

Refreshed we carried on to Ipanema and had a paddle before falling into a couple of chairs for drinks, the non-alcoholic kind!!!!! This ½ hour walk, albeit with a refuge and toilets took nearer 1¼ hrs., still once refreshed we had to make our way back as we had agreed to meet David and Christina for lunch before they started their trek back to the UK. We arrived back at the hotel, knackered, soaking wet (sweat not rain!) and in desperate need of a shower.   Though it was a fair walk in this heat and we did contemplate a cab or maybe even a bus, we stuck at it and arrived at our hotel with sufficient time to clean up before our get together in our lobby at 1400hrs.

The four of us walked to a beach restaurant just over the road from our hotel and had an excellent, inexpensive meal; well go back there. After a few beers and etc., we walked back up our road to another restaurant we know for coffee and Pastel de Belém or Pastel de Nata, (both names are right) those beautiful Portuguese custardy tarts that I love and David fancied them as well.

We bade our farewells and en route to the hotel I popped into a barber for a haircut, a little more expensive than Celcius in Campo Verde, so will wait ‘till I get back for the next one!!!

Back to the hotel for another early night trying to shake off our ailments. By the end of today we had done 11,848 steps or walked 7.2Kms, no wonder we are knackered!!!!!!!

With no early morning tea Christine was gasping so down to breakfast at a reasonable time; no Cruise Liner Breakfast available here, back to normal.

Thanks to Christine not sorting her self out, I now have a stinker, sore throat and cough so planned an easy day. So after breakfast went over to the beach and had a swim, even at this time it was quite crowded, still it was very nice, did our coughs and colds a power of good I’m sure!!!

We were due to meet up with our friends for a late lunch today, but they didn’t answer our e mail about where to meet etc., we thought that perhaps they had a better thing to do but then our room ‘phone went; it was David come to talk about lunch etc. Apparently Christina had been trying to reply to our e mail, in fact tearing her hair out so David came in search of us, firstly to the two other “W” hotels in the area, still third time lucky!! The long and short of it is we are meeting tomorrow after which they can get cab to the airport as they are flying home. We then went out for a stroll around the local

market behind our hotel where we saw things that even Spain wouldn’t have in a street market. We then headed back for a rest before we ventured out again for an early meal.

We had another early night in the hope of throwing off our cough and splutters before the morning.

 

The alarm went off at 0630 this morning, last early morning tea arrived promptly, not surprisingly as no doubt they wanted us all “up-and-at-‘em” out of Cabin by 0800hrs and off ship by 0900hrs.

As most of our luggage had been taken the night before, our plan was to oblige and armed with the residue of luggage, an over weight and bursting ruck-sack and a shopping bag that was overflowing, we were out of the cabin a little after 0730hrs.   We dragged it to the Grand Dining Room for our last breakfast, Steak and eggs washed down with Champaign for me, and Lamb Chops washed down with Perrier Water for Christine: a fitting last breakfast to complete a first class cruise, on a first class cruise ship.

David and Christina also joined us for breakfast and we agreed to meet up in Rio as they were also staying opposite Copacabana Beach.

We wandered down the gangplank, only to find there was another “monster” cruise ship disgorging her passengers. The shed was very busy with all “those” passengers searching for their luggage; ours on the other hand was the other side of the shed and we found ours very easily; small cruise ship!!!!!     Now to find our driver in all this mêlée, I waited with bags and Christine eventually found him.

Being Saturday the traffic was lighter than normal, good news but several junctions had been closed and we had to make a number of detours, bad news. We arrived at the hotel too early for the room but as we were now both a bit under the weather stopped in the reception to wait and yes you’ve got it, played crib. We were told 1400hrs was official booking in and we must have met the “jobs worth” man; every tine we asked, he quoted the rules and when we saw people arriving after us and getting a room before us we were incensed. Anyway we have a room, 9^th floor overlooking a block of flats, we are one street back from Copacabana but on the top floor, 19^th, there is a pool, a bar and a view over the tops of the buildings and we can see the beach; they fulfilled their “blurb” but not the spirit of it!!!

We had a stroll over to the beach, paddled whilst watching all the Brazilians enjoying themselves in the sun, being Saturday we think all the folks from Rio were all on the beach. Anyway on the way back we had a late lunch or early evening meal and back to the hotel for an early night.