Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The local Cariocas call Rio de Janeiro their Cidade Maravilhosa  (Mareolous City) and it is easy to understand why: the beaches, lively music, stately colonial architecture rubbing shoulders with gleaming skyscrapers and much more! Unfortunately we only had 24 hours to enjoy it.

During our late afternoon sail in, the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain welcomed us as we entered the harbor.  The high humidity limited visibility, but straining our eyes we could make out the "Christ the Redeemer" statue on the distant peak to the right of Sugarloaf.

Thursday morning we headed for Sugarloaf and the cable car that would take us to the summit 1,300 feet above sea level.  The sky was threatening rain, but we are travelers (not tourists) and can handle a little adversity.

The trip to the summit requires riding on two cable cars: the first one travels from ground level to the peak of Urca Hill about half way up; the second one completes the journey.

On Urca Hill peak we could see the famed Copacabana Beach below (on the photo's left.)

Continuing to the summit of Sugarloaf, we spotted Christ the Redeemer statue protecting Rio de Janeiro.  The statue is 6 miles inland from the harbor.  While admiring the view, a light drizzle began falling.

One more look at the magnificent city before heading down.

On our way to lunch, the rain became more serious.  Even so, as we passed the famed mosaic sidewalk at Copacabana Beach,  Gene couldn't resist stopping to capture this iconic view.

As long as he was this close and already wet, why not continue onto the beach.  Normally there would be thousands of sun loving patrons enjoying this stretch of sand, but not today. (No, that is not Jan in the photo.)

Lunch was at a Brazilian BBQ steakhouse.  These restaurants feature a huge salad bar followed by chefs carrying beef, chicken, pork and lamb on skews to your table and carving off as much as you wish.  Jan and I enjoyed the "show" and the salad bar.

Back on the tour bus, we headed for the Christ the Redeemer statue located atop Corcovado Mountain, 2,300 feet above sea level (that's 3 times higher than Sugarloaf.)  It was raining harder!

To reach the statue, we traveled by coach to Corcovado Mountain.  Once there we boarded a cog train that took us close to the summit.  Then we rode an elevator and escalator up another 200 feet to the statue's base.  Up close, the 93 foot statue is enormous!  By now the rain was pouring. We decided that two quick photos were enough and retreated back to the ship to dry off. 

After leaving Rio, we ran into some heavy seas, 16 foot waves, and spent the next 36 hours staggering around the ship, handrail to handrail.