20260130 Friday Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the second-most-populous city in Brazil and the sixth-most-populous city in the Americas. Founded in 1565, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire.
Wiki for Rio
Rio is very spread out. The downtown (Centro) area includes the cruise port, roughly at the left edge of the picture.. But the beaches (Copacabana, Ipenema) are far away to the southeast, off the right edge. It continues a long distance behind the taker of this photo. Link to pop-up showing this.
We're planning a cog-rail train to the Cristo statue in the morning.
….. Interesting morning. Started with light breakfast in Windows and a waiting period in the Caberet. When everyone felt ready we marched out in multiple mobs to the buses. There were at least five buses going where we selected - lots of people want to do what we're doing, I guess. They were all in one of the old warehouses, now vacant since container traffic has taken over from bulk stuff that had to be warehoused until pickup.
The bus took us across town to "Trem do Corcovado", or Train of Corcovado. Corcovado is the name of the mountain on which is the 30-meter high statue of Christ, in Portuguese "Cristo Redentor". The mountain is about 2,200 feet high. The statue stands on an eight meter high base, in which is a chapel.
The bus dropped us across the street from the Trem. Our mob waited for the light to change, then scurried across. Pedestrians have no rights in traffic here, except on the lights. Our director got the tickets and gave one to each of us. Then we wended and wended and waited until a train appeared. When prior occupants got out, we got in.
The trem didn't move quickly but it got up the hill in 20 minutes, waiting once for a down'bound tram to pass and passing one tram waiting for us. After getting out we wended to the elevators (Otis, of course) which took us up another level. We jumped on the escalator for the final ascent to the viewing level.
There were lots of people to get around or walk with as we went. People everywhere, including a mass being conducted in the chapel. The views are superb. One can walk around the base taking pictures in every direction. So we did that.
A half-hour later we did this trip in reverse; the only difference being the down-bound escalator was inoperative. At the bottom we again waiting for the light and dashed across the street to the bus.
We drove along Ipanema beach observing the people, our guide yapping continuously about buildings and celebrities who have been there. At the end, one goes around a small hill and comes to Copacobana Beach. We also toured its long avenue to the end.
Then we crossed the small range there into the old downtown, to the catacombs of the bus. We walked through the terminal warehouse, including security, to the ship.
We went directly to the Patio for food, then to the cabin to relax.
Here's the Photo Link for O's pictures.
Then Dolores got a warning from Delta Airlines that our flight tomorrow might be impacted at Atlanta due to the weather. The temperature there could be in the 20's Sunday morning due to cold northern air being blown south by the backside of a northeaster going up the Atlantic coast. After some debate, we decided to go on with our plans and let Delta solve the problem. Sent son Bill a note about all this.
Disembark from our friend Azamara Quest.
We've completed the cruises shown in the picture above, some several times like Alaska. We've also done two long land tours in Australia and New Zealand, a number of river cruises in Europe, and RV trips to all states and provinces.
We had to cancel our day trip to the airport since the vendor never communicated with us. We'll just go to the airport and eat & read there.
Our homeward flights are GIG-DL60-2130-ATL-DL2328-0841-JAX (+1).
… Left to themselves, things will always go from bad to worse. Especially when traveling.
We ate breakfast in the cabin after getting up well before the alarm. Sat for a bit, then took our small things to the luggage place on the pier. Found our luggage that the crew had taken ashore. Found the ship's airport shuttle and went to it.
The shuttle, with crippled attendant, took us to Galeao airport terminal 2. We were turned loose and found Delta checkin at the extreme other end of the semi-circle building. Nobody at the counter. Found they only have two flights a day, ours and a later one to New York. Got our boarding passes from a kiosk, so we're ready.
We sat at a vendor area. I tried calling a hotel and failed no matter what I did. A tour group leader waiting for his group helped us graciously. He called the in-terminal hotel and found they have no vacancies. He called the hotel in Terminal 1 and found they did have day-rate vacancies. He took us to the place to get a ride to T1 - gave him money in appreciation. The driver to T1 wheeled our luggage into the terminal right to the hotel check-in desk - gave him money in appreciation.
Checked in - day rate $100+ - but we're not in the mood to negotiate. Huge room with King bed. Got out the adapters and plugged in the laptop and various iPhones. Generally set up camp for the day.
In the room we watched some TV, especially the weather. The forecast for ATL is a little snow and 15*f temperatures. Delta sent us warnings that our flight might be affected and offered free re-booking. We decided to take our chances and let Delta worry about the weather.
About 1815 we checked out and took the shuttle to Terminal 2 and checked in for the Delta flights home. After checkin we had to walk several hundred meters to the other end of the terminal to enter the international departures area, including the Duty Free articles layout. Then another couple of hundred yards to Gate 57 at the end of the spur out into the flight area. At the appointed time we boarded.
The flight from GIG airport in Rio to ATL went well. O slept most of the way, D wasn't as fortunate and cat-napped. The landing at ATL scared O since the plane at the last moment lowered the right wing and landed hard on the wheels on that side - then in recovery it went down on the port side till O was afraid the wing-tip would hit the ground. But all's well that ends. Then we found our flight to JAX had been canceled and we were rebooked onto the following flight.
We went through the arrival ceremonies. Picked up our luggage, went through customs and re-checked the luggage. Got on the ATL subway to B terminal and waited. Finally we boarded our replacement flight to JAX, a nice 757 flight. The luggage appeared in due time. Son Bill took us home in his warm little HR-V through the 25*f cold day. He helped us get our stuff into the condo and got us up to date on happenings.
We settled in. Thanks for coming along.
