Carnaval!

Next stop on the itinerary was Brazil and the excitement of Rio de Janeiro! We sailed into Rio Sunday morning, Feb. 18th. They told us to be up on deck for the sail-in - and what a beautiful morning it was! We cruised right into the harbor, past Sugar Loaf, Corcovado Mountain with the the statue of Christ and the white sand beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. It was a crystal clear morning which made it even more spectacular.

Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in South America. It's also the continent's largest country; when you look at a map, you see how it dwarfs all the other So. American nations. For centuries, the world's largest supply of sugar came from Brazil and its rich sugarcane plantations. Thousands of slaves from Africa were brought over to work the fields. Slavery was abolished in the early 20th century and the European, African and indigenous Indian races intermingled, creating a diverse and beautiful population. Brazilians are frequently listed among the world's most beautiful people, and from some of the Brazilians we saw, we would have to agree.
On Sunday, Crystal offered another complimentary tour for all guests, this time a trip up Sugar Loaf mountain. You actually travel up to the top in two stages by cable cars. It was a beautiful view of the bay and the islands and city below -- but unbelievably hot (around 98!) and crowded. In addition to us, there are 7 other large cruise ships in port -- and it's Carnaval!! The city was packed to overflowing; everywhere you turned, there were people, people and more people! It was actually good to get back to the air-conditioned comfort of the ship this afternoon!

Sunday night was Carnaval - and what a celebration! The city is alive with samba bands parading through the streets to the beat of thousands of drums, accompanied by dancers in beautiful feathered and sequined costumes. The whole city moves with the samba beat. The highlight of the 4 day celebration occurs on the Sun. and Mon. nights before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. On these nights, there is a huge parade and competition among the dozen samba schools, or clubs, which represent different areas or neighborhoods throughout the city. It's held in a place called the Sambadrome, which is a long avenue with grandstands on either side. The stands hold about 80,000 people who have purchased tickets to see this spectacle. The parade starts at 9:00 pm and each samba school takes over an hour to pass by! The schools have up to 6,000 marchers each! They dance the entire parade route and each school has anywhere from 4-6 elaborate floats that accompany it. There are dancers at the top and on all sides of the floats. Six samba clubs march each night -- and the parade continues until about 5:00 in the morning!!! The costumes and continual music and dance are just unbelievable. The ship offered a tour to Carnaval, and about 400 of us went. Annie opted out on this one, which was probably smart. We were in the "reserved" section of the grandstand, but it did involve climbing about 4 flights of stairs. The seating was concrete bleachers (although we did get a little 1" cushion to soften it!). I stayed for about 3 hours and then opted for back to the ship, which was fine for me. But what an experience! I have no pictures to post -- too many heads to really get an idea, so you'll have to wait until we get back to see the print pictures. Words, and pictures, really can't do Rio Carnaval justice.

The next day, we did another tour to Corcovado, which is the highest mountain in the city. Corcovado is 2,300 ft. high and on the top is a 125-ft. statue of Christ the Redeemer. This is the statue seen in many pictures of Rio, overlooking the city. The statue's arms measure 75 feet across and the whole thinkg was financed by "passing the plate" in Rio's many churches. We took a train ride up the mountain and then an elevator and 2 escalators to the top. The views were, for lack of a better word, awe-inspiring. When we came down, we continued our tour and went out to the famous white sandy beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema(of the famous song). It was a great morning.
Rio is really a beautiful city. Unfortunately, crime is a serious problem any time of the year, and even more so during Carnaval with all the people. There are something like 12 million living in greater Rio alone. They constantly warned us to wear no jewelry and bring only limited cash and credit cards. As one lecturer said, "Bring just one credit card ashore - and make certain you have the phone number to call and report it stolen when you get back to the ship!" We didn't have any problems and didn't hear of anyone on board who did, but I'm sure there were probably some passengers on our ship or one of the others who lost some cash or credit cards. But Rio is still a delight. It is a truly vibrant and spectacular city and I'm so glad we got to see it. Neither of us had been here before and to be here during Carnaval was a special treat.

We began heading across the south Atlantic Ocean to Africa when we left Rio -- 5 days at sea before we hit land again...and then it's a small island named St. Helena, where Napoleon was exiled to. Remote to say the least!