Dateline – Rio de Janeiro
Today was a food day. Yes there as sightseeing involved but I was much more impressed by the Brazilian delicacies. One of the things about traveling with Tauck is that when they are responsible for the meal, they do it right. Usually, in my work a day life, I have a continental breakfast (oatmeal and coffee on UAB days – pastry and coffee on VA days) and one other big meal. I’ve adopted this schedule to keep my weight where it’s supposed to be after ballooning up an extra 20 pounds or so during the pandemic when I was getting three meals a day and then some. Today was the usual breakfast buffet (and I am developing an overt fondness for those passion fruit croissants), a lunch of sea bass with creamed potatoes and carrots, charcuterie, and a gigantic cream puff with creme anglaise and strawberry coulis at a restaurant called Lila’s in the Brazilian Cultural Center downtown, and a dinner, of beef croquettes, seafood stew, and cheesecake at an oceanside restaurant named Marinho close to where Copacabana turns into Ipanema. I’d be worried about my waistline if I weren’t running around so much. I suppose I should have taken pictures of my food but I didn’t. Sorry. Bad Instagrammer – no biscuit.
I had to be up at the ridiculous hour of 5:30 am this morning as the group had reservations for the early morning electric tram up to the famous Christ the Redeemer statue and it was wheels up on the bus at 6:40. Two cups of coffee and buffet breakfast later, I had made it to my seat for a relatively short ride through early morning Rio to the tram station. Christ the Redeemer sits on top of a peak named Corcovado, which is about twice as high as Sugar Loaf, roughly 2000 feet above sea level at the summit. On the sea side, it’s a steep granite face. On the interior side it backs into one of the ridges of mountains that surround Rio. I read somewhere that the granite monolith mountains of the area are left overs from the formation of Gondwanaland after the dissolution of Pangea, more millennia ago than most of us can conceive of. Exactly how and why this has led to these spectacular formations, I shall leave to the geologists. I once spotted a bumper sticker that read ‘Reunite Gondwanaland’ and I think I shall take that as a mantra. That pesky Atlantic ocean has caused no end of troubles.
The electric tram that goes to the top of Corcovado was conceived and built in the 1880s, long before Christ was installed up there (he dates from 1931) and is a very steep incline mountain railway very reminiscent of the ones that climb the mountains in Switzerland. (No surprise – the current iteration is of Swiss design and manufacture). It takes about 20 minutes to ascend the 2000 feet through the tropical forest (it’s part of a national park) with jaw dropping views glimpsed between the trees. At the top, there’s a staircase of some 215 stairs up to the viewing platform which surrounds the statue on its pedestal. Even with our early morning start, the crowds were thick, seeming mainly to consist of young people trying to get the perfect angle on the selfie for their Instagram or Tik-Tok or whatever Generation Z is currently using for social media. I came, I saw, I was photographed. I got tired of the crush. The views were fine but like yesterday, it was hazy so it wasn’t quite as spectacular as it would have been on a clearer day. I spent the rest of the time at the summit chatting and being amused by a small tribe of coatimundis who arrived and wandered among the crowd hoping to be fed. There were also a few marmosets but they were more shy and clung to the tops of trees. I am still hoping to spot a toucan in the wild but so far, no luck.
We descended again via tram and had a quick tour of the central city/business district by bus (my least favorite way of seeing a city). I can’t really recall anything that made me sit up and take notice. Then it was off to one of the samba schools to learn more about the Carnaval traditions. I think everyone knows about Carnaval in Rio and has seen pictures . I had assumed it was something like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I was very wrong.
The Carnaval parade is a competition between the various samba schools (think Mardi Gras Krewes crossed with a civic organization like Kiwanis or Civitan) and has very strict rules regarding theme and presentation. It is not a parade through the city and there are no throws. The parade is through a special built stadium seating 75,000, lasts seventy minutes, and has a panel of judges applying very strict criteria and scoring to determine a winner (who gets bragging rights for the next year). There are five nights – two for the first league schools, two for the second league schools, and one just for kids as they get young ones involved early to teach them the skills necessary to keep Carnaval going in its present form – which was formalized in the early 1930s. We saw the basic construction of the skeletons of the 2025 floats which are in the process of being completed (hydraulics lift some platforms hundreds of feet in the air). The costume shop (which won’t really gear up for another month or two). Got to dress up in some Carnaval costumes and learned some basic samba percussion. Then it was off to the aforementioned lunch.
On returning to the hotel midafternoon, I took in a little pool time, a little nap to help with the digestion, read up on the political news (ugh – I should write a thing or two about politics but I think I’ll wait until after I return), and took a walk. The paparazzi crowd outside the hotel has diminished, probably because we are out of the weekend, but the security fences remain up. I’m still not quite sure who is being stalked. There was a rumor on the bus that it was Justin Bieber but I would think he’s past his sell by date for the twenty somethings that had been gathered outside the last few days. Then it was off to dinner and now, I am having some more of my complementary bottle of champagne, writing this missive, and trying to figure out if I have the energy to write anything else tonight. It may have to wait until tomorrow. It’s a travel day from Rio to Iguassu so there should be down time.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 