Destinations - Week 1 Santos, Paraty & IIha Grande Brazil
We joined the ship in port of Santos which was a 2 hour drive from Sao Paulo airport. Very industrial port not much to see.
Kathie's new friends.....she likes those tall guys
Paraty Brazil is a colonial town along the coast north of Santos. They were getting ready for the their carnival celebration.
The church is circa 1722 and has been partially converted into a museum.
We were in town at high tide and most of the streets near the marina were under water.
The tender ride into and out of town were 1 1/2 hours each and we had a number of passengers who lost their lunch on the way into and out of town. Not sure why these old people don't realize that can't handle this stuff.
The next port was the island of IIha Grande. Lot's of young Brazilian girls with their tiny thong bikinis...I like to call it "Boob Heaven" :-)
More of IIha Grande
This section will full of pictures and commentary on our 4 days in Rio de Janeiro
There are many, many things to see and do in Rio but be careful we had a number of people on the ship fall victim to pickpockets
This is Christ the Redeemer statue that sits on the top of Corcavado Mountain which is in Tijuca National Forexst which is the largest urban forest in the world.
The statue itself is made of reinforced concrete and covered with sandstone tile. The base is 26 feet high, the statue is 98 feet high and the wingspan is 92 feet high. And many of the hippies that were visiting it were higher than that :-)
The picture to the right of the statue is the view from the top of Corcavado Mountain. That's one of many parts of Rio with the Formula 1 racetrack clearly visible.
The next major attraction in Rio, and my personal favorite was the Botanical Gardens....cause I'm such a plant loving kind of guy :-)
The following pictures were all taken in the Botanical Gardens. Included in these are pictures of the monkeys that roam the gardens and the majestic imperial palms that tower 150 feet.
Other Botanical Garden Pictures
And a visit to anywhere, for Kathie, wouldn't be complete without a little dance class
To your left is Sugarloaf Mountain. You can see the cables that take you to the top. Or for those who want a little exercise there's a hiking trail on the other side of the mountain that takes about 3 hours to climb...its 1300 feet above sea level.
Above is the world famous Copacabana Beach. Its approximately 4 km long or for you miles people about 2.5 miles. It's a major tourist attraction day and night. And speaking of night, look who's enjoying a few caipirinhas at happy hour, 2 for 1 on at the beach.
Imperial Palms
But enough of this nature stuff with Kathie drinking and dancing, lets move on the more refined cultural aspects of Rio that I'm interested in :-)
There were two museums just down the street from where we were docked in Rio. The one on the left is Museu do Amanha, which according to my fluent Portuguese means Museum of Tomorrow and the one on the right is Museu de Arte do Rio which means, well I think even you guys can interpret that.
The last few pics will show you examples of Rio's street art. You can't go to any big or little city in Brazil without seeing street art.
One final picture. Do you know what this is without using Google camera to tell you. For everyone that gets it right I'm buying drinks at the bar by the pool
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