Rio de Janiero

Greetings from on board the Regent Seven Seas S.S. Mariner presently docked in Rio De Janiero. The last several days have been a whirlwind.  We left Detroit Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. and arrived in Rio at 11:00 the next morning.  The Rio airport was a madhouse when we arrived.  We both agree that much needs to be done in the arrivals hall before the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 or there is a publicity disaster in the making.  We finally arrived at our hotel in Rio at 2:30 p.m.  We asked our Regent representative to suggest a restaurant near our hotel that was local and very good.  She suggested Marius Restaurant, a traditional Rio barbeque restaurant.  Barbeque restaurants in Rio are not the same as in the states.  This restaurant and other barbeque restaurants like it are price fixed, all you can eat establishments. You can chose one of three options:  meat only, seafood only, or meat and seafood.  We both choose the meat only option.  This was a good choice because there were a lot of seafood options on the salad bar.  The salad bar was unlike any we have ever seen. There must have been 30 or 40 different offerings including multiple shrimp offerings, clams, oysters and caviar.  Once we finished the  salad bar we went to the hot food bar where we found several different rice options,  several different seafood sauces to put over the rice, and several veggie options.  The only potato selection was rather pedestrian french fries.  While eating our hot selections waiters were constantly coming by the table to put slices of beef on our plates.  The first several times we were given sirloin, which was followed by beef tenderloin. After the lamb chops we said enough. All the meat was excellent   Obviously no dessert was ordered.  It was  a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to Rio.  Our hotel was located right on Copacabana Beach. While we walked for several blocks along the street next to the beach, the dirty old man in Tim came out. There were many exotically beautiful women in nearly non-existent bikinis.  Unfortunately, as is the case every where we travel, there were also women who should not have been in nearly non-existent bikinis.  You take the good with the bad. Before you cast aspersions on Tim, Lynda also seemed to be doing some heavy drooling over the men.  We were exhausted from our long flight so turned in early on Saturday.  Tim did not sleep well as he was up several times after midnight checking for updates on the Big Ten Championship game.  In case you did not hear,  MSU beat Ohio State 34-24 to win the Big Ten Championship and a place in the Rose Bowl.  Go Green!

Before we left Michigan we booked a tour for Sunday morning through a company we have found on the internet separate from the tours offered by our ship.  This tour was a 3 hour walking tour through the St. Theresa section of Rio De Janiero. This neighborhood many years ago was very fashionable and then went through a downturn.  It is now making a come back and is home to many lively restaurants, bars and clubs and is a bit of an artist colony.  Our guide pointed out one home that 10 years ago was worth $200,000 and is now worth over one million dollars.  As you can imagine on Sunday morning it was a bit quiet.  Still, all in all, it was a fun and interesting tour.  As we left the St. Theresa neighborhood we went down a long series of stairs know as the Convent Stairway.  The bottom of the stairway is located near the financial district and leads up towards St. Theresa.  It gets its name from the Convent located at the top of the stairs.  There were several hundred steps and the facing of each step featured beautiful ceramic tile work.  Most of the tile is in blue, green and yellow, the colors of the Brazilian flag, but there are also decorative tiles.  As the artist was doing his work he encourage people to send him tiles from other countries which he then included.  Over 100 countries are represented.  The beauty of the steps made you forget how tired you were walking down them.  At the conclusion of our tour we made our way to our ship.

Sunday on board the Mariner was spent getting settled in our cabin, having a drink, getting acquainted with the layout of our ship, and having a drink.  Did we mention that this is an all inclusive cruise meaning the our drinks on board are free.  While we were unpacking, the young women that takes care of our room came to ask us how we wanted our bar stocked.  It's dirty work but someone must do it.  The week before we left for the cruise we discovered that we were going to have two additional guests on board with us.  Cole and Kelsey sent Flat Stanley and Flat Melody along with us and we have already sent Cole and Kelsey pictures of Stanley and Melody's adventures with us, including the mandatory lifeboat drill.

Monday morning we booked a Highlights of Rio tour with the ship.  For the most part the tour was very disappointing.  Rio De Janiero is a city of 6 million people built amongst  large hills and small mountains.  This makes Rio a very difficult city  in which to drive.  We spent the first hour of our tour maneuvering through heavy traffic to a beach located at the foot of a small mountain. Here we were going to watch para-sailors hang glide from the top of the mountain and land on the beach.  We saw exactly one para-sailor.  It was then back on the bus for another hour of driving through more heavy traffic to a train station where we boarded a cogwheel train that took us to the top of Mt. Corcovado.  This part of the tour made the first part worthwhile.  Located at the top of the 700 meter tall Mt. Corcovado is the iconic statue, Christ the Redeemer.  Undoubtedly you have seen pictures of this statue.  It is the tallest art deco statue in the world. The statue itself is 90 meters high and shows Christ with his arms stretched out to the side.  From a distance it looks like a giant cross.  Not only is the statue beautiful but the views of Rio spread out below are spectacular.  We heard one tourist say, "Jesus Christ, what a view".  We don't know if he was talking to the statue or not.  This tour took longer then expected so we got back to the ship just in time to get on a bus that was to take us to SugarLoaf mountain, a 300 meter high mountain that stands at the mouth of the harbor.  We were exhausted from the morning tour and hungry so we skipped the afternoon tour.  Instead, after lunch we took a cab to the Metropolitan Cathedral.  We had seen the Cathedral on Sunday from a distance and found it intriguing.  It is shaped like an upside down cone and reminded us of the contemporary Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool that the locals in Liverpool call "the Funnel".  The Rio Cathedral is catholic, was opened in 1964 and completed in 1979.  There is no artificial lighting inside, only natural lighting from hundreds of small windows.  There are 16 long vertical panels in the cone, four of which are stain glass.  It is very beautiful indeed.  The cathedral is rightly proud of the fact that Pope Francis visited the cathedral earlier this year.

We have just left port and are entering the Atlantic Ocean.  It is a bit sad to see Rio De Janiero recede in the distance as it is a vibrant city to which we would easily return.