Rio de Janeiro!!!

I vowed to keep up the blog so I would have these memories in print.  I'm behind already.

 Sherry and Dave were kind enough to drive us to the airport since it wasn't in the middle of the night.  We left by 8 am allowing exta time in case the freeway shuts down.  The airlines tell you to allow 3 hours but our last flight from Tel Aviv that said 4 hours, was way too close as they were boarding the plane when we got to the gate.

This was our first time on Jet Blue.  When we arrived at the airport, the airline wasn't open until 2 hours before our flight.  Our bags were tagged but you couldn't drop them off.  Phoenix redid terminal 3 but didn't allow for any seating on that floor to wait for the airlines to open. Lucky for us, they opened a few minutes after George and Linda arrived.  Linda had trouble with kiosk so had to wait in a short line to get her bags tagged.  I was so proud that I could get the darn machine to work without any help that I didn't check the bag tags to make sure they were going straight through to GIG in Rio.

No problems with the plane as it arrived in New York 25 minutes early.  George, Linda and Bill all had wheel chairs and it took awhile before they had all that squared away.  We had to travel from terminal 3 to terminal 8 at JFK.  I don't know the actual distance but I'm sure it was a couple of miles and lucky for us, the wheel chair pushers knew exactly where to go.  

We had to go downstairs and wait in a little room for a bus to take us to terminal 8.  Then when we arrived we had to wait for the wheel chairs.  We had almost 3 hours between flights.  Our gate was the last one in terminal 8.  When we finally got down to it, the sign said boarding was in 20 minutes.  Just enough time to walk back to the end where the bathrooms were.  This was the shortest international flight we've ever taking.  The plane landed almost an hour early just under 8 hours.  Now it's Sunday morning.  Wheelchairs and drivers took the group through the passport control in a special line, so no waiting.  Wow! I couldn't believe smoothly everything was going.  We had prepaid for two private cars to take us to the hotel.  The wheelchair drivers led the group down to baggage claim.  The asked for our bag description and waited and waited and waited and waited.  Then we went to another place and they looked up our bags.  Good news they found them, bad news they were in New York.  No problem they'll bring them to the hotel.  Only problem is they don't have daily flights to Rio.  The bags will have to go to Miami and then to Rio.  The ship departs at 10 pm but if they don't arrive before the ship departs they will send them to Buzio our next stop.  I used to take two carry ons but only used one this trip.  This took a while before we had all the paperwork.  I was happy that our drivers were still waiting for us.

I think we arrived at the hotel around 11am.  The ocean front view rooms weren't ready but they had a side view ready so Bill and I took it.  It is on the 33rd floor and is a corner view room.  George and Linda were able to bring their carry on stuff to our room.  

We had a tour to Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf mountain and cable car booked for 1:30.  Now bear in mind this is Sunday and we left the day before.  I had on my zip off travel pants, so I was able to have shorts.  I had a t shirt under my sweatshirt so I had removed the sweatshirt in the airport.  George and Linda decided at the last minute not to take the tour.  It was a very physically challenging tour and they were also exhausted.  This small tour had four other people, one couple who is going to be on the cruise. I told Bill, "why would anyone go to Disneyland when you could get a thrilling ride just riding down the streets of Rio."  We've been to alot of places in the world, but nowhere like this.  Our driver had that minibus going down the streets like some action movie.  

Our tour guide was wonderful and she had so much energy.  We went through many tunnels here.  It seems like they just blast out a mountain and put in a tunnel and there's another cove like area for a town. 

Matilda did mention that they have had a lot of rain and this was the first weekend that they had sun.  Everyone was on the beach. 

Here's a photo from our room.

It's a good thing I don't get car sick because we climbed up this mountain through a huge forest.  The switchback road was made of bricks.  We passed the colonial home of the coffee plantation owners.  

Matilda told us that the forest is the largest national park in the world.  We drove up to what I thought was the top.  We exited the minibus and then had to climb a very steep walkway to the top.  Once Matilda handed us the tickets we then had to walk back and forth through a maze, which is usually crowded with people. This took us back down to the area where we were left the bus.  

Now we got in a van operated by the National Park and then went back up the road.  These roads were very narrow.  Once to the top, we exited the van and had to take an elevator and then two escalators to the top.  When we started up the escalators we were in fog.  It was clear below, but foggy.  Now the weather was not great for photos, but you could still see the size.  It wasn't easy seeing the mosaic but you could make it out.  I wish I had thought to bring the binoculars in the carry on.  

The monkeys like the ones in Gibralter were also all over the place.  I took a lot of photos on my phone, but still not sure how to transfer to the computer so I can put in the blog.  The Nikon camera quit opening up again.  I've figured out that it works fine in a dry climate but the humidity must do something to it.

We then drove down to another area where you could see the city.  The coastline is huge but not straight.  A lot of different beaches.  We are in Copacabana.

We could see Sugarloaf Mountain from this point.  The drive to it was another adventure.  Our timing was perfect as there were no lines.  Our guide purchased the tickets and up we went.

You went up so far and then had to take a second cable car to the top.  It's the second longest one in the world.

This tour lasted 5 hours. Matilda was great and having just a few people and no crowds was perfect.

When we arrived back at the hotel we were too tired to go out and explore the area for dinner.  I had a text from Linda and knew they were in bed.  We ended up going down to the 4th floor where the pool, restaurant and bar had a view of the beach and nightlife and had a beer and sandwiches.  

When we went back to our room about 8 pm I had a surprise.  There was our luggage!  Can't be any better start to our South American adventure than that!!

Turtle Safely........