March 3 and 4, 2023

Rio de Janeiro literally means “River of January” and is mostly known as Rio. We were here in 2018 and spent a couple of days here, including the main tourist attractions – Sugarloaf Mountain, Christ the Redeemer statue and Ipanema and Copacabana beaches.  So this time we wanted to see other parts of the city. But to read the post from that trip, click here

Here are some pictures from our sail in.  It was very hazy so I couldn’t get a good picture of Christ the Redeemer (it is at the top of the hazy one!) but the sail in to this harbor is very beautiful even with the haze. You can see two views of Sugarloaf Mountain and the cable car wires.

Brazil is the only South American country where the residents speak Portuguese.

We thought we would do the hop on hop off bus to scan the city and decide where we wanted to get off and see more. To our surprise there was no hop on hop off bus here.  So we came back to the terminal and signed up with a small van tour – but they wanted to take us to all the things we had already seen even though that wasn’t the tour they sold us.  In addition, we waited more than an hour as they wanted to fill the van and there were only 4 of us there.  We got tired of the run around and the wait, so went back to the ship for lunch and after lunch had a wonderful (and cool) visit to the Museu do Amanha (The Museum of Tomorrow).  It is an applied sciences museum which explores the opportunities and challenges humanity will be forced to tackle in the coming decades from the perspective of sustainability and conviviality. The building itself is amazing and we happily spent the whole afternoon exploring the interactive exhibits.  The museum is free to anyone over 60 too! They ask your language when you come in and  give you a credit card sized card that you tap at each exhibit and everything appeared in English. It is really hard to describe it all but it is extremely well done.

Since it was over 90 degrees out, the museum turned out to be a great choice.

At night, since this is the last night for passengers on this segment, we had a movie – Trash – which we have seen before.  It was filmed in Brazil and was a really good movie. And, of course, the popcorn is always a hit with me.

Our second day here in Rio, we decided to ride the tram on the entire route that goes past the port.  Again, it was air conditioned and free to anyone over 60.  We got an early start and wanted to see the city before our next museum, the Museo de Arte de Río which didn’t open until 11 AM.  We finished our “tram tour” and had drinks at the art museum café.

The museum itself was really wonderful.  There was a strong African influence in the exhibits on display right now.  I am not sure which are permanent exhibits and which are special ones. 

Here are some of the exhibits.  One that was really touching was the selection of 60 children’s clothes displayed on racks with holes the shape of the heart. When you looked in the line of clothes through the hole, you could see bullets in the wall.  The exhibit symbolizes gun violence in children.

Music was playing in the courtyard of the museum and this young man was just chilling!

We really enjoyed our time at the museum, and then decided to take the tram to have la late lunch at the famous Confeitaria Colombo which is not only a landmark of the Cidade Maravilhosa but also one of the most beautiful cafes in the world, besides Café Central in Vienna, Café de la Paix in Paris, or Caffe Greco, in Rome.  Norm ordered a “tall beer” and what he got was a normal bottle of Heineken!

They take your picture when they are ready to seat you but we didn’t buy that one.  Here are some shots I took myself.  It is really stunning inside.

We leave Rio today at 7 and will arrive at 8 AM tomorrow in Cabo Frio which is a new port for us.  There is no pier for large ships so we need to go ashore in the tenders.