Day 89 and 90: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

This port is not starting off well. 

Well, that is not completely true, just the morning wasn’t starting off well. 

I rolled out of bed when the announcement came that the ship was cleared and went up to the pursers desk to hand in my ID to start my dock time. But I wasn’t on the list. Apparently talking to Dean Eddie helped and they got rid of my dock time. So I went back to my room where Jessi was still sleeping and we decided to pretend like I still had dock time so that we could sleep in. 

Ok, that was the good news. 

Then I severed my toe.

Ok, not really severed my toe but I went to walk our of our room, our original room, and three of the toes on my right foot got attacked by the bottom of the door. I was on the floor screaming. It hurt so bad. 

The only way Jessi was able to get me up off the floor was by reminding me that I was laying in the stain. 

My toe was gushing blood in a line right a the base of it. So it now looks like my toe was severed off and then sewn back on. 

See… not starting off great. 

At least I didn’t have dock time.

When we were done sleeping in we ate lunch on the ship and then ventured out to Corcovado or, in english, Christ the Redeemer. 

Its the giant statue of Jesus with his arms stretched out. It's up on a huge hill that over looks the whole city. 

As we left the ship and walked through the terminal some guy stopped us and tried to sell us some tour bus ticket that would take us to a bunch of different places around the city. He said that it cost 40 Reals a person and that a taxi to the statue would be the same amount. 

I dragged Marie and Jessi away from him. Of course a taxi to Corcovado would not cost 120 Reals. He just wanted to sell us the ticket. The taxi we took cost us 20 Reals. Dude, we have been traveling for almost four months, you can not scam us that easily. 

We were dropped at the base of the mountain where the tram station was. We bought tickets for the 2:00 tram and then killed about an hour in the terminal. It wasn’t so bad, they had wifi. And we people watched. 

The tram ride was a lot of fun, and took a while. The mountain was a high one. We spent most of the time riding through trees but the first glimpse of the view was exciting. At one of the stops on the way a band got on the tram and played music. Of course they walked through and asked for money but they were really good. 

At the top it didn’t seem like there were very many people until you got right underneath the statue and then it was completely crazy. There might not have even been a lot of people but everyone that was there was standing completely still to take photos so it was extremely hard to navigate and ended up being really frustrating. 

The view was incredible though, you could see 360 degrees, all around the city and the mountains. Rio has an awesome landscape, there are these small mountains that stick up everyone in a while and a whole bunch of islands all over the water. It was incredible. I was able to spot the ship hiding between buildings. It looked so small. 

We explored the gift shops, and there were a lot of them. The most entertaining thing was that you could buy small statues of the statue. Not only that but you could get Jesus in almost any material. Wood, marble, glass, felt, glow in the dark, plastic…just take your pick. It was absolutely absurd. Obviously the only one we actually contemplated buying was the glow in the dark one. How about that for a night light? 

We didn’t spend all that much time up there. We took our pictures and then we walked around the small complex before grabbing a tram to go back down. We were probably only at the top for about an hour, but it felt like plenty of time. There are only so many photos you can take of the same view.  

On our way back to the street at the bottom of the mountain we saw a lady carrying a Subway bag. 

New mission: find the subway and eat delicious sandwiches. 

You know, I hadn't really wanted to eat american food in any country up until this point. People would seek out McDonalds and TGI Fridays and Hard Rock Cafés, but I would always rather eat the food from that country. Until this moment when we saw the Subway. Subway sounded so good. 

We asked someone and they communicated that it was about a five minute drive in some odd direction. We just decided to walk and headed in that direction. After a while we stopped in a pet store and the guy said that it was about a two minute walk down the road we were on and would be on the right. 

We did find it and we did get sandwiches and they were absolutely amazing. 

Best decision. 

After that we just headed back to the ship. 

Our plan was to go out, we wanted to celebrate Marie's birthday while we were all together. 

We got ready and left around 9. While everyone was getting ready Lillian, Molly and I snooped through a Brazil guide book and came up with a rough plan. We were going to start the night at an Irish Pub called Shenanigan's. Then move to either Copacabana beach or a nightclub. 

We caravanned in two taxis to the pub. We found that what they had told us was true: people don't stop at red lights. We were on a huge strip and our cab driver went through three red lights before deciding that it was time to stop at one. Rules of the road? Guess there aren't any. 

On our way off the ship we found out that someone had had their necklace ripped right off of them and another person had been mugged and punched. So our guard was up very high. Shenanigan's seemed like a safe place so we went in and got a booth. 

There was live music and we ordered drinks and food and just had an overall awesome time sitting there and people watching. We think the table right next to us was there for the guitarist and they were all schwasty pants and being very rowdy. Then a bachelorette party came in and it got very loud and very busy. 

We did a lot of bonding at that booth. We got to know each other a lot better, it was a great time. 

We decided to leave and head to a club a little before midnight. We paid our bill and found two taxis.Somehow our cabs got separated and even though Lillian and I had the address on our phones we did not end up at the same place. 

Our taxi driver dropped us off on a street corner and pointed down one of the streets. We asked at the diner on the corner that was closing and all I could gather was that the club was either not open or no longer there. 

It was then that I made the executive decision to go back to the ship. We had no idea where the other girls were and I didn’t want to try and find them and we were running out of cash for a taxi. Although Molly protested that the night wasn’t over yet I got her and Jessi back into a taxi and we made it back to the port. 

Just one problem. I had Amanda's ship ID with me, and she wasn’t with us. 

I managed to connect to wifi in the terminal and emailed Lillian. But when I checked Facebook I found that Lillian had messaged me where they were. Their taxi driver had recommended another club and that is where they ended up, but it was a bit lame. Most likely because it was a Wednesday and a holiday. 

I told her that I would leave Amanda's ID with security, which I did, and we got back on the ship. 

Molly had been jabbering on about getting a Nerds Rope so we went to the piano bar and I got to watch her smear a sandwich all over a table as she ate it. She takes the lettuce and cheese off of them. So it is just meat and mayo. More like mayo with a little bit of meat. And for some reason the bread always falls apart so she gets it everywhere. Pretty entertaining on my end. She followed the sandwich with Nerds Rope. 

On the way back down to our rooms we ran into Amanda. They were all back on the ship and safe. 

I told Molly to call me when she woke up in the morning. Everyone else was going hang gliding so we were on our own. 

My phone rang at about 10:30. Which was way earlier than I was expecting. Apparently Marie had woken up, turned all of the lights on, and kept asking Molly where her purse was. Guess it was time for everyone to get up. 

We met for lunch. Our plan was to go up Sugar Loaf and then go to Copacabana beach. 

Sugar Loaf was awesome. I actually liked the view a lot more than I liked the view from Corcovado. It wasn’t as high up so you could make out details and find things but it was still fantastically panoramic. 

The way you get to the top of Sugar Loaf is by cable car. You take one to the top of the shorter hill and then another to the top of Sugar Loaf. Each cable car ride was three minutes each. 

Molly is a celebrity. Apparently. We had two separate teenage girls ask to take a picture with her. They were not together although it happened about five minutes apart. Both of them complemented her hair, the second girl even called her perfect. Is red hair not common? Was it because she looks very American? Or maybe is resembles an actual celebrity?! 

Who knows but it was weird. 

We spent much longer up there than we did up on Corcovado. Nearly triple the time. Most likely because you could sit and look at the view. Also because it was significantly less crowded so it wasn’t overwhelming. My favorite thing was watching the airplanes take off and land. The runway looked very short from so high up, it had water at both ends just like the one at Gibraltar did. We were so high up that it looked like the planes were in miniature. But when they would take off they would come right at us. I could have watched them all day, it was so cool. 

Molly's dad is a pilot so she laughed at how excited I was for the planes. I just thought our vantage point was the neatest thing. 

After we descended around 5 we headed over to the beach. The only beach that I have been to that is bigger is Venice Beach. This beach was enormous. Both is length and in width. 

We walked along the sidewalk right off the beach. There were small food stands that were all set up the same, and in the same uniform type of building but had different names and different menus. We kept expecting something different to come along but nothing ever did. 

Our plan was to walk until we were hungry and then go back to the ship for dinner. But then we decided it would be nice to get a drink and then when Molly looked at the menu she decided that she really wanted pizza. So we ended up eating out, but it wasn’t too expensive for what we got. It was gorgeous out and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting right on the beach and people watching and watching the sun set. It ended up being the perfect day. The pina colada and bruschetta that I had helped a lot too. 

Our taxi back to the ship was smooth sailing. The wifi that we tried to utilize in the terminal was not. 

We ended up not getting back on the ship until almost 8 o'clock. We were going to watch Game of Thrones but we were both exhausted so I went back to my room and packed. 

Tomorrow I leave for the Amazon. I get to go piranha fishing and alligator spotting and swimming with the river dolphins. Should be amazing! 

I am a little sad to be leaving Rio, it is a beautiful city. Most definitely my favorite city of the voyage. Maybe not in activities but in scenery. I could have stared at it all day. When I am done in the Amazon we will be meeting the ship in Salvador. I have heard that there isn't much to do there but the beaches are really nice. 

Maybe I can find a movie theatre and see Catching Fire? 

Piranhas!!