April 29,

  Happy birthday to one of our B-I-L’s!!!

We had plans today! So we awoke at 0700 to get ready. Yesterday at the beach, Jeff was given a flyer for a tour, and he booked it. We had our Javas and a light snack breakfast of an apple and a yogurt. By 0820 we were downstairs for an 0830 pickup, which was at 0840. We were in a van with others. We picked up others and ended up being full with 14 total people and our guide, Cesar, and a driver. The tour was through Ruhm Tours.

Underway, we saw a dog walker with about a dozen dogs – from a wiener dog to a German shepherd! The driver navigated the very busy streets of vehicles, going around double parked cars, and vying for road space with scooters, cars and other buses of all sizes. Cesar narrated sites as we passed by. His English was thick accented and broken, making him hard to understand, and just giving us the basics.

First was Flamengo Park. It was a nice green space with Flamengo Beach. Next Cesar pointed out an impressive tall two leveled row of arches- “Arcos da Lapa”. Google listed it as an 18th century aqueduct, now serving as a bridge for a tram. That was cool! Next site, Cesar said we would get out for 15 minutes. The driver parked across from a church, “Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo da Lapa do Desterro”- Church of Our Lady of Lapa do Desterro. It was from 1773 and had a large exterior of blue tiles, with “trees” growing out of the top bell tower. But we weren’t here for this. We went instead up the street through souvenir booths to explore Escadaria Selaron, a tiled stairway. At the start of the way up was a large tile placard. It described:
  “The Convent Stairway Santa Tereza Rio de Janeiro, THE GREAT MADNESS.” It seems a Chilean artist, Jorge Selaron, started this tile work as a “personal tribute to the people of Brazil,” in 1990. It has evolved now into “changing the tiles in a continual labour of substitution.” It continues reading that there are tiles from at least 49 countries and on 12-7-1999, he “succeeded in painting his own tiles.” He ends the tile placard, “I will only complete this crazy original dream on the last day of my life.”
Wow! It was interesting, an explosion of colors and too many people, such as us. We all loaded back up, late of course, and moved on.

Next we went to “Catedral Metropolitana de Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro”, briefly translated as St. Sebastian Cathedral. WHEW! That’s a name! It was built in 1979 – the only cathedral, and home of the Archdiocese of Rio. It was tall, large- could seat 20,000, very modern exterior and interior with four colored columns of stained glass. Wikipedia said it was a modern style based on Mayan Architecture. That makes sense writing it now, but I think I would have preferred to go into the first church we parked by. Oh well. We were given 15 minutes and most were on time returning.

Our next place – “Cristo Redentor”, the Christ the Redeemer Statue. First we drove through Tijuca, a forest and national park on our way up the mountain. Along the way we also drove over tracks for a little tourist trolley car. We finally made it! At 1100, Caesar procured our tickets, and we loaded onto park bus transfers to finish going up. At 1113, we arrived and were given until 1155 to return. We were ushered through the obligatory photo shoot. Then we took some stairs and an escalator to the platform with the most people for the space that I can remember being in for a long time! Granted it is the most visited site in Brazil!! Wowza! The statue of Jesus Christ is 30 m or 98ft tall upon an 8 m or 26ft pedestal. It was built in 1922 to 1931 and is considered art deco style. There were different versions, but the final has Jesus’ arms and hands outstretched 28 m or 92ft over the city of Rio de Janeiro. There is a ‘sacred heart’ and an eye imprinted in each hand. It is quite something to see. The platform is not shaded and it did get a bit sweltering. Plus all the people, which is fine, but so many were trying to make space for their Instagram shots. Still glad we did this. Looking back down to the town was a bit depressing with all the smog. But it made me think about all of humanity and how God might see His human Creation for too many days! Under the statue was the little Chapel of our lady of Aparecida. It was a nice quiet respite and cooler, even though seats were filled as soon as they emptied. At 1220 we were all loaded into our van, only 25 minutes late.

We drove back down, making our way to our next stop, we saw the things Cesar pointed out again – the forest, seeing some slums stretched up another hill, and other neighborhoods. As we drove on we saw some art deco buildings in central Rio. That was nice. We unloaded at Mario Filho Stadium, a soccer stadium. Cesar did a group photo. The Brazilian soccer teams have the most World Cups and is the only country that has been in the Cup every time. We loaded back up, moving on.

Next was lunch at Delapa Buffet. It was quite a spread. I had some spinach salad, potato salad, okra salad, sushi, onion quiche, green beans, fish, pork, chicken, and lasagna. Jeff had much the same but included Carne Asada- he said that was the best flavored here for him. Our tour price included lunch minus beverages and dessert. I had a Coke and Jeff a Sprite, paying 26 BRL or $5.20 for them. At 1430, we headed out with the family of five leaving us. A little while later the three women got out, leaving three couples. One couple stayed in the van when we got to our last stop and the driver and they left.

Now we two couples came to “Pao de Acucar”- Sugarloaf Mountain. Caesar said it’s 396 m (1,299 ft) high. It was supposedly named for its “resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined sugar,” according to Wikipedia, and the mountain “became part of a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO in 2012.” Cesar took us remaining four up the first of two cable cars. The other couple split – the man could not go up further so Cesar stayed with him. The three of us went up the second cable car to the top of Sugarloaf. It had stunning views of the city, beaches, and unfortunately, smog. But it was great to see the mountains “catch the clouds” so to speak. The clouds came rolling up and then enveloped us! Thankfully we did get some views before the mountain became engulfed! There was a commotion as little monkeys showed themselves. There were signs all around warning of them. They are common marmosets, and little hunters of anything you are not guarding! Anyway, we left, reversing on the cable cars down and the tour ended as Cesar put all four of us into an Uber.

The Uber came into congestion and we got out early as we were close enough and could walk faster than we were going in the car. Jeff stopped at the store, and I went on back to our place (after he told me where to go). We both showered as we were sweaty messes. Then we relaxed and had crackers and cheese with a Chilean Sav Blanc. What a great day seeing Rio.