Day 33 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

At long last we are in Rio! The second most populous city in Brazil (after Sao Paulo), it was founded in 1565 by the Portuguese. In 1763 it became the capital of Brazil (which was still a Portuguese colony at that time) until 1960 when the government decided to build a more central capital city, namely Brasilia.

Cruise ships dock at Pier Maua and directly outside the port building is a tramway and plenty of taxis to get you around. The port building itself has a selection of little shops selling duty free goods, drinks, clothing and a few trinkets (all overpriced!)

Rio is famed worldwide for its beaches (although they’re not a patch on Guernsey’s!), the stunning mountainous backdrop to its setting at the entrance to Guanabara Bay, its ‘Carnaval’, its Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugar Loaf Mountain and of course the Maracana football stadium. Rio was also the first city in South America to host the Olympics in 2016.

Today we did a 9 hour tour (which ended up being 10 hours) to Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer, with a stop for lunch in a restaurant just off Copacabana Beach. The temperature was a pretty boiling 35 degrees all day, and standing in long queues in the unremitting sun, waiting to get in cable cars and funicular railways, was rather wearisome. But so worth it!

The statue of Christ the Redeemer is one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World. It was designed by french/polish sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineers Heitor da Silva Costa and Albert Caquot. The face was sculpted by Romanian sculptor Gheorge Leonida. The statue took 9 years to construct (1922 – 1931) and is built out of reinforced concrete and sandstone, and it stands at a height of 124 feet, including the pedestal. One of the most recognised symbols of christianity in the world, it receives approximately 3 million visitors per year. It is a truly stunning monument – such a shame that at the time we got up there the sun was directly behind it, making it almost impossible to get a decent photo.

The cable car up to Sugar Loaf Mountain was also worth the long queue in the ferocious heat as the views are absolutely world class.

Interestingly, in spite of its glamorous reputation, Rio’s tourism industry has been in steady decline since the late 20th century. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, international air arrivals and hotel occupancy dropped by almost 50%. It is believed that the reasons behind this are the removal of Rio’s capital city status in favour of Brasilia, plus Sao Paulo becoming the country’s communications and finance centre. It has to be said that despite all of the upgrading that took place in the run up to the 2016 Olympics, and in spite of its vibrant vibe, parts are of Rio still feel somewhat run down, dirty and chaotic. All in all however we had an absolutely wonderful day in this iconic, ramshackle, frenetic city, topped off with a fabulous Samba show back on ship by Brazilian group ‘Samba Cervila’.