Rio! For New Years🎉🎆. Incredible day, really relaxing and Royal Caribbean knocked this one out of the park.
Heading Out
Early morning start and needed three alarms to wake up on 4 hours of sleep. Ended up stumbling downstairs right at 7:45. I was mentally prepared for chaos in the theater just like the Chichen Itza day since all those same people had the included excursion.
However, the entire group had been split into two staggered start time so there were a LOT less people waiting in the theater. I got with my group and within a couple minutes we were off on our journey.
Super quick walk off the ship, through the terminal and loaded the bus.
The Included Excursion
Driving through the City
The drive through the city was a little eerie. Very little traffic on the road and no people at all. Our guide explained that it’s a business district and it’s Sunday morning so no one is there cause there’s no work today.
We passed the old town and then the more modern architecture and it was interesting to see the contrast so close together (reminded me a bit of St. Louis and my college years (go bears!). Pretty much everything we passed I wanted I get off and take some pictures but I don’t shoot through windshield and windows anymore after many pictures that get distorted and have artifacts.
As we passed one of he bridges, it was completely blocked off and our guide explained that running and exercise groups organize runs (and bike rides, etc) and the city closes those roads every Sunday. I asked to clarify if it was a race, like all the half marathon I’ve participated in, but he said their free and you just sign up online. Fascinating that they just routinely shut down infrastructure….can you imagine the complaining in the states if we shut roads down EVERY week?
Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer)
Our train tickets up the mountain were for 10AM, but we arrived at the train terminal at 9AM, so we had a bit to wander and shop. Immediately, I started feeling much more excited that this was going to be a little different from the Chichen Itza tour and we’d have more time to relax and wander and not be rushed. Saw Christ already looking over us and the city.
Wandered over to the train tracks where some dude saw me taking photos so decided he needed some too, and kept jumping in front of my pictures. He also refused to move when the train came and had to honk a him…Darwin Award???
Cristo Redentor
We ended up getting an earlier ticket and snagged the 9:40 train which was amazing. Amazing views as we traveled up the mountain, it was definitely an aggressive incline.
As we got to the top, I was super stoked to find that there were not a ton of people yet at the top and as we climbed the stairs up to the top, we had tons of room and space to navigate. As we got to the front of the statue, that’s where people were all clumped together. Definitely a lot of people, but also not the worst ever…Magic Kingdom pre-fireworks was worse.
The weather up there was so insanely nice. Beautiful cold breeze and air and the whole day was just glorious. Maybe 50 to 60 degrees at the top.
Took a couple pics and took in the view, but some Chinese tourists starting trying to push around me and I got annoyed. We’re literally all in a line, there’s a gigantic statue…wait your turn and we’ll all get there, but they feel more important so try to go around and elbow their way. Too bad for them though, I’m a big dude and you can’t really push me easily 🤣. At one point I turned and told them to relax. Haven’t been so frustrated since that one time in Hong Kong were I almost got in a fight with one of them that kept pushing me in the back.
As I was editing photos, I noticed that if you zoom in, you can see all the detail and triangular pieces that make up the art deco style.
Beautiful views over Rio. Lots of panos that I’ll need to merge together.
Ended up leaving the chaotic area and wandering around some of the lower parts and enjoying less people and still having the views. As we were waiting to go back down around 11:40, it was definitely getting more crowded. Could hardly move anywhere even at the base right after getting off the train. We got SUUUUPER lucky that we got there early and they let us up. I can’t imagine (but heard) that later groups it was a LOT more crowded.
Lunch – Brazilian BBQ
We descended down the mountain and got to the lunch place by bus, which was a quick 15 minute drive. When we got there, we were also once again lucky and one of the first groups there. We got our salad from the salad bar (and consumed a bunch of quail eggs), and then the meats started to come….and boy were they delicious. Finished with a caipirinha and a brazilian soda which I’d been meaning to try.
All sort of cuts of meats, and just a lovely meal. Bringing meat to the table over and over is SO dangerous for my diet (or lack thereof). Let’s just say….meat sweats…
Did I mention, we had just some glorious views of Sugarloaf mountain and a dog park right in front of us? Super chill, relaxing, and some great company with Andrew and Alé (Instagram, TikTok).
We headed back afterwards, and made it back to the pier around 2:30(ish).
Return to Room
I got back to find my stuffies waiting for me, and the sleepy Lotso was outstretched in the Redeemer pose. I asked Lovelace if it was intentional, and it wasn’t, but hilarious nonetheless.
Heading Back Out into Rio
I quickly went to drop off some of my stuff, like my backpack and my large camera, and swapped it for my tinier Peak Design Sling bag and just the smaller camera.
Head out in search of a Starbucks mug in Rio. From some research I had done in Fortaleza, it sounded like Starbucks was pulling out of Brazil (maybe… Source Article), so I wasn’t too hopeful, but figured, why not go and check at least.
After a quick Uber ride, I got out and went into the Starbucks to find that there was not anything remotely branded in the store. They didn’t have the city mugs, but also didn’t really have any other mugs outside of some plain colored ones either. I confirmed with the barista, and then set back outside to go explore the city.
Little Incident
I walked out and pulled up my google maps to check where I was and what direction I wanted to venture in. I have a pop socket on my phone, and I’ve developed a pretty strong grip on my phone cause I run with it like that all the time, but I was walking toward one of the buildings through a square, when someone ran up from behind me and tried to pancake my phone and steal it (one hand underneath and one hand above).
I saw him coming out of the corner of my eye, so he wasn’t super successful anyway, but I gave him a glare in annoyance, and said something like “c’mon bro”.
About 30 seconds later, another guy came up and tried the exact same thing unsuccessfully as well. I kinda gestured at him and was just shaking my head. Pretty feeble attempts but also annoying. It wasn’t a secluded street or anything, bright daylight and visible in a very public space, and they’re pulling this crap.
To make it worse, there are two police standing about 20 feet away and I look at them, they look at me, and when I gesture to the two young men, they kinda look and shrug as to say “they didn’t get your phone, so we can’t do anything”.
All very ridiculous, but also a couple thoughts run through my mind in the next couple moments.
- I’m making a bunch of assumptions, but if you really have nothing to lose and you’re living on the streets, why wouldn’t you try something like this? It’s very sad and the reality of the situation makes one stop and ponder about your own privilege and reality back home as well.
- I’m a pretty big guy and could fight back / chase someone down, but if I wasn’t would someone do something worse to get a phone? Material things can be replaced, but not your life, and not your memories and mental energy and focus.
- I’m definitely a useless American. I speak no Portugese at all, and if I really had lost my phone, I would have had literally no way to know how to get back to port (or even what the address was). I was relying on Google Maps, Uber and internet connectivity to get back safely. Maybe I’ll plan a little more in foreign countries where I don’t speak the language. The P in my INFP is cringing hard.
Cityscape
Ended up being a lovely day out in Rio after that incident. Walked around and captured some of the views as I moseyed my way back to the port.
After walking around for 2 hours, it felt like it was getting close to sundown, and the area I was in was starting to get more deserted, so I took an Uber back to port.
Around the Port
I was going to walk around the port a bit and see what I could find, when I ran into my South African friends (haven’t had a chance to ask them for permission / social handles to tag them yet — so they’ll remain nameless for now).
They had left from lunch to go see the chaos over at copacabana so we were chatting about all that and just chatting as we walked around toward a grocery store.
The area around the port was actually a lot different and more of that old town feel that the guide had told us about, very different, and I probably wouldn’t have walked it by myself.
The grocery store was really fun to walk though though. I enjoy looking at similar products with local twists…like love for cuddly bears is universal. I did like the havainas logo with generic sandals being sold.
Back On Ship
Got back, and ended up heading up topside to see what the views looked like up there since I didn’t go in the morning (waaay too early). Caught the Cristo Redentor overlooking the city and some really nice sweeping views of Rio from the ship as well (will merge them in the next couple days).
As we sailed away toward copacabana beach for the nighttime fireworks, I noticed that the Cristo Redentor was lit up differently and changing color, so that was fun trying to capture — note to self — it’s hard to balance light in the dark while on a moving ship.
What’s really wild though is that you can see people at the base of the statue in the zoomed in pics.
Food
Dinner was a special menu, but I was already pretty full from lunch, so I tried (maybe unsuccessfully) to eat a lighter dinner.
We even got a little celebratory show from the staff, which was super cool.
They also had some of the crew representing over 60 countries to send us some congratulatory new years words in their own languages which was really really cool.
Setting up for Fireworks
After dinner I set up shop around 9PM for fireworks, finding a nice spot on the ship and just messing around with settings as I waited. Using the zoom lens was really interesting, was able to actually see the people on copacabana and also see the waves as they crashed up on shore.
Will post most of the fireworks photos on tomorrow’s post, since technically that happened on Day 23, but here’s a teaser of some of them.
Running Update
There were still so many people on the deck around 2AM that I gave up and just went to sleep. I will make up the 10K for the Dopey Challenge when I wake up tomorrow morning (benefits of being Virtual).
Vibe Check
5 parts joy — beautiful weather, gorgeous views, what more could you ask for?
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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