Rio de Janeiro  ---   20 & 21 January 2006
A morning excursion featured a visit to the gigantic statue of "Christ the Redeemer" with his arms
outstretched.  We went up the steep high peak on a cog railway and enjoyed the beautiful views of
Rio below.  A must see experience!  
Statue of Christ the Redeemer, at the
peak of Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro
Interior of cog railway car going up Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Entrance to Bay of Rio de Janeiro, viewed from Corcovado.
 Sugar Loaf can be seen at the left center of this photo
Bay of Rio de Janeiro, viewed from Corcovado
The excursion also included a stop at the conically-shaped Rio Cathedral, which on this day was
celebrating the day of its patron saint, Saint Sebastian, a martyr usually shown with several arrows
piercing his body.  Seeing this cathedral, so different from any other church we had seen, was a very
memorable experience.
Interior of Rio's Cathedral
Ceiling of Rio Cathedral
Exterior of Rio's unique Cathedral
In the afternoon Virginia and I took the
hotel's shuttle bus to Ipanema, two or
three miles from our hotel, and walked
back along the Ipanema and Leblon
beaches.   We enjoyed seeing thousands of
attractive tanned bodies resting on the
beaches, tossing balls back and forth,
playing volleyball, kicking balls around,
etc.; a few were even in the water.  Men
invariably wore skimpy Speedo-type
bathing suits, while women almost without
exception wore micro-bikinis leaving very
little to the imagination.  
Leblon and Ipanema Beaches, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Although the following day was still part of our Chile-Argentina-Brazil group tour,  it was an "at
leisure" day during which Virginia and I went about on our own.  We started by taking a taxi to the
base of Sugar Loaf Mountain and taking a series of two cable-cars to the top.
Sugarloaf viewed from the intermediate
cablecar station
Sugarloaf cablecar approaching the uppermost station
Next we took a taxi to the Palacio de Catete, which was the Presidential Palace until Brazil's Capital
was moved to Brasilia in the 1970's.  The building now houses the Museo de la Republica (Museum of
the Republic); most rooms are still furnished as they were during in presidential days.
From the Museo de la Republica we took the subway to the end of the line in Copacabana and then
continued  back to the hotel by taxi.  Well, really two taxis; we switched from the first taxi after
about fifteen minutes when the taxi driver revealed he had no idea where the Sheraton Rio Hotel was
located, so we then paid him off and took another taxi.
A Rio subway car
A Rio subway station
That evening our tour group celebrated a farewell dinner at the Pampa Oceano Restaurant in
Copacabana, a really fine buffet restaurant featuring very well-prepared seafood.  A good time was
had by all.  We bid our fellow tour group participants farewell and bon voyage.
The following morning, 22 January, was the end of our group tour organized by SmarTours.   Virginia
and I continued our stay in Brazil for an additional two weeks on our own.  Those two weeks are
described and illustrated in the next section of our website, "Southeastern Brazil".