Where to begin? When something is hyped as much as Rio is, with Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city and Sugarloaf Mountain guarding the entrance to the harbor, it’s not unusual for the reality to fall short of the hype. That’s not the case here. Sugarloaf lives up to the hype, but Christ the Redeemer far exceeds it. I’m struggling to come up with an adjective, some kind of superlative, to describe this man made wonder and the view from its base, but ultimately I will fail, because no words or even photographs can truly portray what you see and feel when you’re up there.
But let me not get ahead of myself. Chronicling my day and night in Rio will probably take more than one blog post, so in this one I’ll report on our shore excursion to Christ the Redeemer, and then tomorrow, which is a sea day, I’ll have an opportunity to describe our evening celebration and midnight fireworks over the harbor.
We docked, along with five other cruise ships, early this morning, and after a quick breakfast, hustled down to the main theater to be assigned to a specific group and bus for the tour. We were beyond fortunate to be assigned to group 2, which meant that we got an early start disembarking, meeting our guide, hopping on our bus and heading for the mountain. We later learned that there were at least 30 groups leaving from the ship, so we were lucky to get such an early start.
A short walk through an empty warehouse that served as an ad hoc terminal brought us out to the buses and we were on our way. And again we were fortunate, as there was almost no traffic on the city streets. We had heard that the traffic in downtown Rio can be epic, but with it being both Sunday and a holiday, most of the downtown business district was closed, and we moved smartly along to the base of the mountain over which Christ the Redeemer reigns.
There are several ways to get to the top of the mountain, including by train, van and hiking, but taking the train is clearly the best and most interesting. Our guide, who was a native Italian who has lived in Brazil for fifty years, passed out our train tickets, and in short order we were on our way up the mountain. The trip took a little over twenty minutes, and on the way we had a couple glimpses of the incredible views that were waiting for us at the top.
Once we exited the train, there was still more climbing to do, with both steps and an elevator to choose from. At the top of the elevator you continue on upward, and it’s possible to take an escalator to get closer to the summit, which doubles as the base of Christ the Redeemer. A final set of steps and you’re finally there. And this is where your eyes are truly torn, as both the statue and the view of the city compete for your attention. They are both breathtaking, and I only wish my photos could do them justice.
The areas for viewing the city and statue were crowded and shoulder to shoulder, but people were good about moving along and letting us move forward when they were done viewing and taking photos. People were also nice about taking photos for each other, and a really nice gentleman from Connecticut used Michele’s camera to take a photo of us with Christ the Redeemer in the background.
We were also very fortunate with the weather, with cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid 70s. It’s summer in Brazil, and we could easily have gotten a blistering hot day in a place where there’s little shade. We could also have had lower clouds, which would have fogged us in and blocked the incredible view of the city below. As it was, we felt very lucky, because we’re only here for a day, and would have had no second chance if the weather wasn’t cooperative.
After an hour or so at the top, we retraced our steps, took the train back to the bottom, and were bused to our lunch stop at Assador, a marvelous restaurant directly across the bay from Sugarloaf Mountain. A word to my carnivore friends—put this place on your bucket list. After passing through a buffet to choose your sides you return to your table, where waiters come by one after another offering sausage, chicken, ribs, sirloins and ribeye steaks, along with delicious fried plantains. As a service to my readers, I also tried caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail. Served over ice, the drink is made with cachaca, a sugarcane hard liquor, along with lime and sugar. I found it delicious and refreshing, but just to make sure I wasn’t misleading you, I had a second to confirm my findings.
After lunch we went outside the restaurant and walked over to the water to marvel at Sugarloaf and take some photos. Then it was back on the bus for a short tour of the city before returning to the ship a little before 3:00 pm. As I mentioned earlier, tomorrow I’ll do a second post to review the evening festivities and midnight fireworks. Until then, enjoy the photos below and have a great time at your own New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Downtown Rio, on the way to see Christ the Redeemer. Almost no traffic. All the vehicles you see are taking cruise passengers on tours.
Entrance to the train station. Neat sculpture.
Inside the train station.
Another shot from inside the station.
My train ticket. Gives you a better idea of what the train looks like than any photo I was able to take.
On the train. Pretty crowded.
As far as you can go by train. From there, on the far right of the photo, you can see people getting on the elevator that takes you up maybe another five floors or so.
Next you take an escalator. Almost there! Sorry about my finger in front of the lens. 😂
Incredible. No words.
A really nice guy from Connecticut took this for us.
There’s a little chapel inside the base of the statue. The one place visitors were quiet.
The view of a portion of the city from Christ the Redeemer. Sugarloaf in the background. This photo doesn’t begin to do the view justice. I’d try to describe it, but it’s beyond words.
You can see much more of the city in this photo. You can also see how crowded the viewing area was.
Waiting for the train back down the mountain.
We had an amazing lunch at Assador. If you’re a meat lover this place needs to be on your bucket list.
Caipirinha is the national drink of Brazil. Put sugarcane hard liquor, sugar and lime together and serve it over ice and you have a Brazilian masterpiece. As a service to my readers I had two just to make sure I wasn’t leading you wrong. No sacrifice too great. 😊
Afterwards, I asked if they had any Coke Zero or Diet Coke. The wait staff didn’t speak English, and I don’t have a word of Portuguese, but after four of them congregated around me we managed to work it out and they brought one right over. They couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating.
Assador is right on the water and directly across from Sugarloaf. Another incredible view of the rock that stands sentinel over the harbor.
Our day in Rio was wonderful, with the New Year’s Eve celebrations still to come.
Comments