Welcome To Rio - Day 15

NOTE: Pictures include the vocal quartet Sounds of the Serenity, The Galaxy Orchestra who played Jazz last evening, view of Botafoga Bay including Sugar Loaf, and view of the Christ Statue (you need to click on the picture to view it)

We also included some pictures from today’s shore excursion, which included a picture of the ladies (Anne Marie, Mary and Glo) and the men (Keith, Stan and Bob) and another pictures of the two of us in front of a rather enormous tree.

We wanted to start off by mentioning that while we celebrated our son’s birthday on the seven day cruise that our son, Eric, turned 24 years old just a few days ago on January 21. We are very proud of Eric and can’t wait to see him when we return from the World Cruise.

We had a wonderful time last evening and wanted to provide a few additional details.

The variety show that we attended right before dinner last evening was superb. Craig Halliday played the electric violin and was accompanied by the Galaxy Orchestra. He made a very nice entrance and the excitement of his music was a wonderful way to kickoff this show. Shirley Dominguez played the Harp and the Galaxy Orchestra too accompanied her. Next to perform was Curtis and Beverly and they are wonderful dancers. We were sitting in the front row so we not only got a perfect view of all of their dance steps but their facial expressions which were perfectly choreographed to the dance and the music. Mark Merchant provided the final act to this show and he is a marvelous comic ventriloquist. He poked fun at almost everyone including fellow performers, politicians, ports of call, airlines, the crew and of course himself. His talent is amazing. We have seen him perform before, and he has us laughing from the start to finish of his show. This was truly a wonderful way to kickoff the evening lineup.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Main Dining Room. We feasted on a very nice salad; a very tasty swordfish entree, steamed vegetables and we each had mixed berries. On most evenings there is a trio of musicians, which makes their way around the dining room playing song requests for the various tables which in our opinion adds to the ambience of the overall dining experience. We do have a favorite song from the Philippines that we enjoy hearing but the table right adjacent to us already requested it so instead we requested they play the song that was played for our first dance at our wedding. They played it so very well and it was very touching for us. The dining room was not very busy as some of the passengers were eating in the Specialty Restaurants while others were either eating in their room so they could watch the NFL playoff football games or they were watching the game in the lounge where hot dogs and other items were being served. After dinner we did go into the lounge for a little while and at that point the Jets were leading.

After dinner, we went to the performance of Sounds of Serenity who sing so nicely. They are comprised of two males and two females vocalists and we think they are just terrific. After their performance, we stayed for a little while to enjoy the swing music, which was performed by the Galaxy Orchestra.

When we arrived back to our room we stayed up to watch the conclusion of the first game between the Colts and the Jets. It was going to be too late to watch the second game for us.

Today we arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which we last visited in 2007.

Keith awoke extra early in the morning and went to the Fitness Center for his morning workout. Once again, he woke before the alarm clock went off and while he worked out no on was in the center which was not a surprise to Keith. After all, many passengers had been up late the night before with some watching the second of the NFL Championship games while others wanted to be ready for the arrival to Rio. Keith was able to watch the highlights from both Championship games on ESPN so that worked out well for him.

After his workout, Keith went to the Lido Café to bring some coffee back to the room. While early, a couple of passengers were there one of which we have known from previous cruises. The other one we have not yet met but Keith sees her there each and every morning writing in her World Cruise Journal. A couple of the Lido Deck Stewards were setting and putting the food items out. Keith spoke with both Rey and Ruell. Rey said he was up late watching the second game in the Cabin. He didn’t look tired given that he couldn’t have gotten much sleep. Keep in mind that we are on a time zone three hours ahead of the East Coast of the USA.

Instead of eating breakfast in our room, we ate on our verandah so that we could enjoy the beautiful scenery and being on the port side of the ship we had beautiful views of the famous landmarks of Rio.

The arrival of our ship into Rio has to rank in the top five ports for the beauty that you will see. It is very picturesque. We enjoyed the ships arrival into Rio from both the open deck and from our verandah.

All of this reminds us that we live on a planet that has so much beauty and it is important to take as much of it in as possible whether you see it first hand, in a film, in pictures or by reading a book.

We thought we would start of with a little information about Rio.

Rio has a long and rich history.

Rio is best known to its visitors for Carnaval with its festive dancers dancing in very bright and imaginative costumes. Rio is set with beautiful mountains all around it and its beautiful beaches. At the same time Rio has a rather long history.

Both the Portuguese and the French Huguenots established strongholds in this region in the 1500’s. It wasn’t long after that the locals would drive the French out of this area and there would be many conflicts over the years. In the seventeenth century sugar cane brought a great deal of wealth to this country. In the late 1600’s this area went through a major expansion with the mining of both gold and diamonds. With this wealth, the French returned to this region, once again, and looted the area of its wealth multiple times.

By the late 1800s Rio became one of the largest cities in the world. By the 1900s Rio started to become well known for its Carnaval parades and for its beaches.

Rio is known today for its beauty. The Corcovado and Sugar Leaf areas, known as the twin peaks, have been photographed extensively. Corcovado is the site of the famous 125 foot tall status of Christ the Rendeemer and is located approximately 2,300 feet up the mountain. The statue was constructed almost 80 years ago.

Another famous areas is the 23,000 acre Tijuca Forrest which is located behind Corcovado and feature 340 acres of botanical gardens.

While Rio is a beautiful city those touring this area need to be mindful of the crime that occurs around the city, particularly during the evening hours. There are many gangs in this city and violent crime has been on the rise for the past several years.

Our ship docked ahead of schedule at the pier located at the pier, Porto do Rio Janeiro – Praca Maua. The ship was cleared by 8:30 AM at which time passengers could depart the ship. Crystal offered a complimentary shuttle that provides service between the pier and the Rio Sul Shopping Center.

We took a shore excursion that we booked with Crystal Cruises. Our excursion was Tijuca Forest Jeep Exploration. We boarded a minivan for the Botanical Gardens where we passed Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon and the residential district of Jardim Botanico.

When we arrived, we took a nice walk through the gardens where the two tour guides pointed out a variety of plants and trees and other vegetation to us. According to the guide this is the largest Botanical Garden in the world. It was stunning. Given that it is located in the city the size of this park was extensive. You could spend days exploring this park.

After our visit, we boarded our open top jeep and we drove through the mountains of Rio and into the dazzling green world of the Tijuca National Park where we enjoyed breathtaking scenery. Towards the end of the tour we had a choice of taking a hike through a portion of the rainforest or getting back on the jeeps and several of us took the hike, which was quite nice.

This was a wonderful tour and it did give us a better appreciation for the nice areas of Brazil. Our friends Bob and Glo and Mary and Stan were also on this tour, which added to the enjoyment of this tour. We were fortunate to have super weather for this tour. It had rained last evening but not during our tour. By late this afternoon it became overcast with some lightening and dark skies.

When we were in Rio last in 2007 it was during Carnaval and there were about seven other ships in port with us and the terminal area was quite busy. That was not the case this time.

We realized that our tour was going to get back to the ship after the Lido Café and the Main Dining Room were closed for lunch. While there were plenty of other options such as Tastes and The Trident Grill we spoke with the butler at breakfast and asked Alexander to order each of us a nice salad entrée, which was delivered to our room just a few minutes before we arrived back from the tour.

In the afternoon, Anne Marie took a very long walk on the Promenade Deck while Keith played singles paddle tennis. Keith also did some reading and Anne Marie took care of some other items such as laundry.

Originally, we were going to eat in the dining room but we decided to dine instead at Silk Road. With many passengers staying in port the dining room had open seating. In addition to the dining room and Silk Road a special barbeque buffet was available on the Lido Deck.

TODAY’S THOUGHT OF THE DAY…..

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

Keith and Anne Marie