Jan. 20. Buzios, Brazil. 85, mostly sunny.
Last night we had reservations in Pacific Rim. I’m not crazy about that food (mostly fish), so we bailed and got room service, and watched the end of the movie about the Jamaican Bobsledders. Very heartwarming! Today we are in Bridgette Bardot’s beautiful Buzios. This was a small fishing town outside of Rio until Bridgette Bardot, while on vacation to Rio, visited, and stayed here. With her unsolicited endorsement, it has since become a major international tourist destination. In the downtown area almost every restaurant, bar, boat and store is named Bardot something as she has single handedly provided a huge economy for this area. It is absolutely beautiful here. The streets are all, I mean every single one in this town of 35,000, cobble stone! There are over 25 beaches, some very public, some very secluded. The water is the most beautiful aqua blue. Our tour today was “Highlights of Buzios”. After tendering a short distance in, we boarded a bus and spent the next 3 hours winding our way through and around and up and down the cobble stone streets.
We had 2 brief photo op stops atop the hills with fabulous vistas down to the beaches and back to the town. Our final stop was a bit longer at a small beach, not to swim, but just to take in the beach atmosphere. It was very enjoyable with a very young and understandable guide. We were back to the ship by lunchtime and eventually hooked up with L&O. We took our cocktails in Splendor Lounge, avoiding some activities in Observation, as well as Krew Kapers. Our dinner started out normally, but somehow got a little crazy regarding caviar, to the point that we invented a new ice cream flavor -Vanilla Cavier Swirl. Purba, our loyal server complied. We all skipped the magician, as he was unable to make himself disappear!
Jan. 21 Rio De Janeiro. 84. Sun and clouds.
We are here 3 days and 2 nights. The prediction was for 85%chance of rain today, so I was really worried, because our tour today was to see Christ the Redeemer, and seeing Christ the Redeemer was definitely on my must do list, and it wouldn’t work in the clouds.
Also several of my favorite crew were going to get to go there today too, so it would have been disappointing for them. Although we did come through a pretty loud thunderstorm last night (3am), by morning the sky was clearing, to a not too hot, partly cloudy day. We lucked out on many fronts. It’s Sunday in a very Catholic country, so not too much traffic, the weather was almost perfect, and although our tour was early (8:15am), wow, that meant we were almost the first group to go up, so no waits for the cog railway or the elevators. “Carnival” officially started yesterday; it goes on for over a month here, so there were closures of downtown streets for Street Parties (at 8:15 in the morning, are you kidding me?) (note: I subsequently heard from 2 guides that the Street Parties actually start at 7am, with the participants getting up at 4am to paint themselves and dress up, Carnival style). Anyway we took a bus maybe 15 mins. to the railway station, where we boarded the train for a 25 min. ride up 2,300’ mount Corcovado. It was a very steep cog railway, with some fabulous vistas along the way.
At the top, one could walk up maybe 10 stories, or take an elevator most of the way, then escalators to the base of the statue. Even as early as it was, it was fairly crowed around the base. The statue is 126’ tall, including the base and the arm span is 92’. It is magnificent and the views absolutely spectacular! We stayed at the top for an hour. By then it was becoming very crowded. It looked like long waits for the elevators, whereas we didn’t wait at all. We then took the train back down and reboarded our bus for a panoramic tour of the city and in particular the 2 most famous beaches, Ipanema and Copacabana. Our very understandable guide gave us lots of interesting information about Brazil and Rio. There really was a “girl from Ipanema” and that’s a really interesting story! Back at the ship, tonight was our “ Exclusive Shoreside Experience” for the 123 on the Grand Voyage, along with 40 Officers and production cast. We met on the pier, in “cocktail attire” at 5:15 for the bus ride to the Copacabana Palace, the first 5 star hotel in Brazil.
The hotel is right on the beach and is a beautiful building in a beautiful location. We had a cocktail hour on the 2nd story foyer opening to a huge balcony overlooking the beach. Dinner was in the ballroom, preceded by a spectacular show of drummers and feathered dancing girls. It was a kind of a preview to Carnival, which will be in full force in 2 weeks, and the girls had on a little more than the ones in Uruguay, but not much. They were gorgeous. Dinner was a salad and fillet. Without a doubt, it was the best beef I’ve ever had. No need for a knife, and so very flavorful. The chief of security as at our table and he was personable and interesting. The only damper on the evening was one guest at our table, whom we knew from the world cruise. He was rude and obnoxious; oh well, otherwise, it was a fabulous evening!
Jan 22. Rio De Janeiro. 82. Sun, clouds, showers.
It’s Disembarkment/Embarkment day today for the last leg of this Grand Voyage. It’s a really taxing day for the crew! Anyway, our tour today was to Sugarloaf Mountain.
When we left it was drizzling at the port, but after driving through tunnels to the other side of the mountain, the sun was shining. Again we were lucky with the weather and the crowds for this tour. Our group was about 20, and we didn’t have to wait too long at the base of the mountain to board the Cable Car. There are special lines for tour groups. We rode up the first leg to the mid-base. We were supposed to spend some time there but our guide said, wow, no lines to the top, so let’s go now and see the mid-station on the way down! So, up we went! It was amazing. Yesterday it was clear at Christ the Redeemer, but we could see that Sugarloaf was encased in clouds. Today, we had clear views from Sugarloaf, but Christ was encased in clouds! Just as we were leaving the top, it started to drizzle, but, thats ok, we saw it all! We did stop at the mid-station in the drizzle, but still with views. By the bottom, the sun was out again. Our tour continued with again a panoramic drive by Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. We got back in time for lunch by the pool, then cocktails in Observation and dinner in CR.
The entertainment tonight was locals doing a show on the pool deck. It was very much like the show at the dinner last night. We got a great viewing spot on the deck above, but about 10 min. into the show it started pouring. We got soaked and bailed, but L&O went down under cover and stayed.
Jan. 23. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. 66, rain.
We didn’t have a tour today, as the tours were either too long or almost just what we have already seen here. I do think in the last 2 day we have gotten a great overview of Rio, and we do think it’s a fabulous, beautiful city, full of people who want to Party, Party, Party! So glad we did what we did the last 2 days because today it is totally socked in and raining all day. So, we are having a “sea day”, with sleeping in, relaxing around the ship, and yes, cool and rainy enough for Bloody Mary’s with lunch!
Rich and Janeen
2024-01-23
Looks outstanding. Glad you got to see the statue close up. I agree about the cobblestone streets being so cool. Our fondest memories of our Italy visits are the local vibe of the small shops and cobblestone streets. Keep on blogging!
Debbie
2024-01-26
This leg of your trip was awesome. Caviar in vanilla ice cream🤔. I am resisting googling “the girl from Ipanema” and will wait to hear it from you. Glad you had so much fun.