Rio De Janeiro – gateway to our Iguazu Trip

Excitement was high this morning …. Not only were we visiting South America’s most popular destination, but we were packed and ready to embark on our 4-day Iguazu Falls adventure.

With the promise of the one of the most spectacular sail in’s ours was marred with a low cloud that hung over the city.  Although not clear the scenes were dramatic and every now and then the mist would clear just long enough for us to get a glimpse of the iconic Christ the Redeemer.

Ask anyone from Rio and they will tell you “While God made the world in six days, on the seventh day he made Rio De Janeiro.”

On exiting the port, we were faced with the most amazing piece of street art we have ever seen.
Deemed as the Worlds Largest Mural, this 190m long wall covers an area of over 3000 square metres, painted with shapes put together just as you would a patchwork quilt.
It’s painter, Eduardo Kobra, now holds the Guinness World record for the largest piece of graffiti in the world.  
Created for the Olympic games, this art captures the ancestors, the indigenous people from the five continents – Asia, America, Africa, Europe and Australia, and encompasses all the colours of the Olympic Flag.

The city itself was getting ready for Carnival, with only a few weeks to go, parties and street parades were already underway. Carnival is held just before lent, with the highlight being the Samba Schools parades, held where else …. but in the Sambadrome.  Our Guide Patricia suggested if we ever return, we should aim to be here near the end of the festivities to watch the parade of the winners, less crowded, cheaper and just as spectacular.

We headed straight for the train that took us up the Corcovado Mountain for a close up with one of the most famous icons of Brazil, Christ the Redeemer.  It was just as fun watching the people taking photos in all sorts of positions to get the best angle.  Luckily the low cloud had lifted and the views across the city were spectacular, especially that of Rio’s second biggest icon, Sugar Loaf Mountain. 

  

As the city fills every square inch around the base of the mountains and the Favelas (slums) like lava flow down the sides. From above we could hear music from bands practicing for the upcoming festivities…  This is Rio!

We took a short walk around the Arty district of Santa Teresa before heading to Parque das Ruinas.  Once the residence of Laurinda Santos Lobo, it was left abandoned for 40 years after she died with no heirs...   It is now a cultural centre and boasts fantastic 360 degree views of the city.

Entering a rather seedy looking part of town we found ourselves at the base of the of the world famous Escadaria Selaron, or more commonly known as the Selaron Steps.
This masterpiece of Chilean born artist Jorge Selaron started off as a project to renovate the dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house.  His neighbours thought he was nuts, but to him it became an obsession.  To fund his project, it is believed he sold over 25,000 portraits depicting the same pregnant African woman. 
As an ever-changing work of art people from all around the world started donating tiles to his cause. Of the 2000 plus tiles there are at least 60 countries represented and some 300 have been hand painted by Selaron himself.  He was a friend of our guide Patricia, and she very proudly showed us the tile dedicated to her!  Kev found one too…..
But alas Selaron's eccentricities caught up with him and he set fire to himself and died on these very steps.

To keep up with this Rio craziness our next stop was the city’s Cathedral.  Not a popular choice of architecture to start with, this cone shape church is based on the shape of a Mayan Temple.  It can hold up 20,000 people… that’s standing room only!!

By now we were tired and hungry so we headed over to Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana… opps I mean Rio…..  Patricia took us to where a local would have lunch, so local, that we ran into our fellow cruise mates and our own personal photographer for this cruise Stu aka Kiwi_cruiser.  Food was great, passionfruit caipirinha’s were excellent.

There was now a bit of urgency to get us to the airport, not for our flight to Iguazu, but the meter was running out for our driver.  So we really didn’t get much of a chance to walk along this famous beach.

After checking into our flight we had a few hours to kill, so we sat and had a coffee.  Although it was a late lunch, the debate was on whether we should eat a light dinner or take the risk that the we will be served something on the flight.  We made fun of Garry when he paid the absorbent $8 for a hot dog just before boarding, only to be laughing on the other side of our faces when our only dinner was a dry biscuit served with a beverage on the flight.

It wasn’t just our tummies that were rumbling as the rain teemed and the lighting flashed all around us whilst we sat on the tarmac waiting for the storm to pass.  From the “Late Ship” to the “Late Plane” it was midnight before we landed in Iguazu. 

Like Albury is to Wodonga, Argentina is to Brazil here were we landed, so we had two sets of immigration to pass through as we drove to our accomodation.  The flashiest thing about our hotel was the sign out the front, but we must remember where we are.