"Her Name is Lola..." Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Rio de Janiero...WOW...known for its legendary beaches, colonial architecture mixed with modern skyscrapers, the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue keeping watch over the city, Carnival, soccer, and samba.

View of Copacabana Beach from the Cable Car on Sugar Loaf

Christ Statue Appearing from Behind the Clouds

Discovered in 1504, and named "River of January". Yes, that seems odd, but it has such a long bay, that the explorers thought it was a river, and since they discovered it in the month of January, what else could it be named?




There were four cruise ships in port, and when we arrived for our tour, everyone was trying to get to the buses. As our group of 30 quacked and waddled behind our leader, we joined other groups from our ship, that then joined groups from other ships. We walked through the port center, the size of three football fields, and then obediently followed our leader across the trolley tracks and into another huge building which held at least eight idling buses, with more outside waiting to get in. We felt like we were in the trenches of WWI, waiting for our chance to charge.

Olympic Avenue with murals of indigenous people
from around the world ...the orange building had the walking
lines, mural building held the buses

It was 103 degrees in the old city. Due to our guide's English difficulties and our bad ears, we didn't learn much. We did learn that the whites were called Cariocas by the Native Brazilians, which meant white house since that is what they lived in. The main old city district was called Lac do Cariocas, since all the whites at first lived around the lake there. With time, the hills of Rio were shoveled away, the lake was filled, the buildings arose

Cruise Tour Madness

and the rest of the surrounding hills were used to increase the beachfront area by 200 yards.




Then it was again on and off the bus, back on the ship to hydrate and have lunch, then back outside to the line and more trench warfare, for the next bus.

Government Building

Municipal Theater

Old and New Side by Side

 

Tour Guide Wagner

 This time we ended up with a fantastic tour guide. He had grown up at the time of the military dictatorship, Jimmy Carter's years. He loved Carter for taking a stand against any country with a coup military dictatorship. During that time, people could be arrested if found in groups of three or more so they would pretend to bask in the sun at marker 9 at Ipanema Beach.  Here the dissidents would discuss politics, pretending to watch girls or whatever one does on the beach. Ipanema still has the markers, with certain sections of the beach for surfers, families, gays, etc . There were thousands of people on the 2-kilometer long beach of pure white sand and warm rolling waves.

Ipanema Beach

A Barry Manilow concert on board prepared us for Rio's beaches... "And when she passes, each one she passes goes....aaaahhhh".

Just one of Many Hillside Favelas/Slums

Still political, Wagner was very upset that his "ignorant country" would elect their new president based on fake news. (He blamed Steve Bannon for helping him win.) What fake news? That his opponent was a satanist, that President Lulu was corrupt and so she was kicked out of office yet the courts could not prove she did anything wrong. That the economy was terrible (it was 4.7 unemployment rate at the time). Now they say it is doing much better yet unemployment is 17%. The previous socialist leader saw that the poor could not do well enough on exams to get into college because of poor schools, so to break the cycle, it was mandated that half the college admissions would be poorer students. Contrary to concerns, many turned out to be the best students because they knew that education was their way out of a bad situation. The new president will change all this. Wagner had lots of opinions... including opinions on Rio's 1000 favelas...slums, the neighborhoods for the urban poor, 6% of Rio's population.

Favelas began back in the 1880s when soldiers waited to be paid on Rio's hillsides for their service at war. They never got paid and never left. More favelas appeared in the 1970s when people flocked to the cities looking for work. In the 1960s many still had no sanitation or electricity and the government decided to build new public housing. Due to poor investment and planning, these just turned into more favelas with drugs and gangs ruling. Police units have moved into some of the more violent neighborhoods although our guide said many of these units are corrupt too.

The Rich and Poor of Rio

Common to see Graffiti and Street Art
 legal in 2014

Olympic Soccer Stadium

Parade Avenue for Carnival with Viewing Bleachers on Both Sides

Rio's Carnival, considered the world's biggest party begins the Friday before and ends on Ash Wednesday. "Samba schools", community-based dancing clubs, plan and rehearse all year for this huge event...a parade with floats, dancing and music, that together tell a story. It can't be a minute more or less than one hour and twenty minutes or they are disqualified.

After the tour, we headed back to Copacabana Beach and bobbed in the waves. Felt fabulous...6 PM and it was still packed with happy vacationers and Cariocas enjoying summer vacation.

Copacabana is home to the biggest celebration in the world on New Year's Eve. There is a tradition of wearing white in hopes of peace and prosperity in the new year, with colored underwear...yellow for prosperity, white for peace, red for love, and green for luck. Little boats are filled with offering to the African sea goddess and floated into the water. Another tradition is to skip over seven waves, while making a wish for the new year, not turning your back on the sea when retreating.

Copacabana Beach and Palace Hotel where Princess Diana Vacationed 

Carol wore the only Skirted Suit on the Whole Beach

Views of Rio from Cable Car

Top of Sugarloaf Mountain

Our time in Rio ended with a dynamic performance by Samba Cervilla, one of the city's many samba schools.

Yes indeed...I do believe Mark has a promising future with this Samba group!