Rio to Sao Paulo to Rio

... iconic image of Sao Paulo ...

From Wyona:

We were up at 4:30 a.m. today to catch the plane to Sao Paulo.

We are on the ship now leaving Sao Paulo and going back to Rio for the day tomorrow.

Greg is tired and already snoring.

Wyona

Sugar Loaf Mountain

We found our way to Urca and then took a two cable car rides up to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. The view is spectacular and we had a beautiful clear day.

This view is looking out of the cable car ride 2 to the landing of the first cable car ride. On the top left side of the photo you can see the Copacabana beach. 

Here comes the cable car. There are no seats, just standing room.

Look across the bay looking towards the tallest monolith in the distance. This is Corcovado Moutain which is one of the new seven wonders of the world 

Corcovado Mountain

I started and almost finished a post on Sugar Loaf Mountain but something happened.

I lost it so now I will do CORCOVADO Mountain, one of the new seven wonders of the world.

We passed a number of favelas on the way to our destination.

Favela is a word for slum but this has changed in the last thirty years.  98% of homes are now made of brick, concrete and reinforced steel and 99% have concrete or roof tile roofs. These homes crawl up mountains and fill the valleys. They go on forever and ever.

 I had to take a picture of Greg's back when we exited the bus.

We took a train up the mountain. The view from the top of Corcovado. .

Corcovado is 710 meters above sea level. Sugar Loaf Mountain is 400 meters above sea level.

And at the top is a very tall statue of Jesus Christ. I am standing on the steps. Can you find Waldo?

The climb is quite steep and travels through the rainforest. The rain forest is very different from the rainforest in Malaysia.

Standing next to the rainforest in Malaysia one can hardly here the person standing next to them because of the moises of the birds, monkeys, insects and whatever. The rainforest that we went through in Brazil was very quiet. When Greg and I were at the top, I told Greg to listen carefully and he could here the sounds of the jungle. He listened and then told me it was the sound of the escalator below us speaking. What a disappointment. I thought I had such a keen ear.

The Beautiful Trees

From Wyona:

Greg and I have been travelling back and forth along the boulevard a number of times a day to Urca, Sugar Loaf Mt., Cococabana, Ipanema, and Corovado to Christ Redeemer (one of the new seven wonders of the world).

I spied some orange tree trunks along the way one day. It took us a few times before we could locate the same grove so we were ready to jump off the bus and examine them.

I tried to identify the trees on online. The best I could come up with is a manzanita but this tree is not indigenous to Brazil.

Help me Glen.

The vegetation here is fabulous. I never get tired of looking at the trees.

If I were a bird or insect I would not want to tackle and of these trees or the flowering bush.

Such beautiful flowers stemming from prickles.

And last is the trees that jumped out in the forest to scare little children.

Wyona

Rio and Copacabana

We left our hotel today in Rio to go to a market and just ride the bus to Copacabana. Just a little Art here. It is everywhere in S America. It is beautiful.


It is hard for Greg to pass a church without going in or taking a picture.

I much prefer to sit with the congregation. This was just a little church courtyard with pews, preacher and congregation. The statues were adorable. I could not keep my hands off the lady with the pearls sitting next to me.

After the market we hopped a local bus to Copacabana. We took the same trip yesterday on a different bus. Just get on the bus and take a chance. Just imagine Barry Manilow singing along the way.

The beaches on the way to Copacabana are beautiful. Many of the men do not wear shirts at all. Funny how Greg noticed that right away but I missed it. The sidewalks are inlaid with tiny flat cobblestones that are not easy for me to walk on.

Here is a view from the bus of Sugarloaf Mt. and Corcovado Mountain. There is a cogwheel cable car up Corcovado Mt. (the short mt.) and then a cable car from the top of Corcovado Mt. to Sugarloaf Mt. Rio is spectacular for the lush mountains and monoliths of granite jutting from the sea. We are on our way up to Sugarloaf tomorrow morning. It is hot here.

Life of Travel

Wyona and Greg started traveling the world 38 years ago.  After retirement they continue to travel and this is where they will document their tourism experiences.  Enjoy!

We began in Alberta. 

We continue to enjoy our home town.

Visiting the Costwolds, UK before retirement.

Penguin Rookery, Ushuahia, Argentina

The trip was advertised as a catamaran adventure to a penguin rookery.  On the ship you have a ticket that tells you the meeting place and time and someone with a white paddle held high walks you down to the motor coach or boat.  In this case by the time we got there another group ad loaded before us, so of the 225 seats not many were left.  Greg sat on the top of the boat which is like sitting on the top of one of the hop-on hop-off coaches – pretty windy when the wind motor is started and the trip heads off for a 2 ½ hour ride up to the rookery.  We were promised that there would be places that sea lions slept out on rocks and told that we were to watch for whales, but all of that would be dependent on the animals.  “Which side of the boat to the whales like,” someone had asked.  “If you are on the starboard side, they are on the port side,” was the answer.  Truthfully, we saw a family of beautiful orca whales, which is unusual for that bay.  And the sea lions could be smelled first and seen later.

The trip reminded me of a trip I took on the barge at Shuswap in the early 1960’s.  The hills and mountains roll by.  The water changes colour.  The pace is leisurely.  We watched an albatross fly back and forth over the tail of the boat, swooping down, turning, flying back over us – magnificent for those who braved the cold outside the deck:  Wyona, Greg, me, a German traveler and his dad who came out occasionally, a disabled woman who tucked herself  into the corner where the cabin met the deck.  She only moved when someone would help her get up.  After an hour Wyona and I had everything we had brought in the way of clothing, wrapped around us, and she was sharing one of her gloves, so that we both had one warm hand and one cold hand.  The art teacher from the boat huddle between the three of us for a while, since we were using the body heat that would transmit itself hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder between us.

“Do you want to go inside yet,” Wyona kept asking.  I like the adventure to all of the senses: the wind on my skin, the sound of the water, my hair blowing across my mouth or flying straight behind.  Greg went inside and bought a sandwich – just one, for old time’s sake.  It was $5.00 and must be a sandwich that is well known, since it is the one that we ate when we went to the other penguin rookery.  “No.  You can’t make me eat that.”  I could still remember the first one I ate.  “This one is different,” said Greg. “No mayonnaise.”

Wyona, today with a buffet tucked away in her travel bag, provided cheese, rye bread, cake, Coke.  Any surprise I can think of she can pull for somewhere.  “I bet you don’t have any chocolate.” 

“Oh yes, I do.”

Those who had the preferred seat in the cabins were 4 across on each side of a table with no room to bend or move.  They sat that way for 5 hours – worse than an airplane.  Now we froze on the outside, but had all of the other advantages – really living in nature!  Our toes so cold we didn't know if we would ever feel them again, our faces windburned from the sun, our best logical powers heightened as we tried to figure out how to maximize a blanket we borrowed from someone inside, making a blanket for one cover all three of our legs.

In the elevator and then again at a pre-dinner reception, I asked people what trips they took today.  Both couples had taken the Penguin Rookery Adventure and said politely, it was nice but I don’t think we would do it again.

Not us.  We would do it again.  With more blankets.