 |
| ready to set sail |
Weather…woke up to RAIN, by the time we stepped outside it
was only cloudy, a bit of mist later, 25 degrees
 |
| sailing |
Thrilled was how we felt when we saw Luis waiting for us in
the hotel lobby this morning! Luis was our guide from our visit to Christ the
Redeemer, he was a great guy then and was our 'private' guide today. Today’s tour
wasn’t meant to be private, but we were the only ones who booked…GREAT! We’re
obviously happy to be with others, but when it’s just us there’s definitely a
benefit to private.
 |
| Sugarloaf covered in clouds |
Because there were only 3 of us, we took an Uber to the marina for our Guanabara Bay Cruise. We boarded a 2-level tourist ship
for cruising with about 50 other people for a 2-hour cruise around Guanabara
Bay – the world’s largest bay in terms of volume of water. Although we’ve been
in Rio for a few days, this gives us a new perspective on the city.
We sailed past and heard commentary about many things
including the Naval yard, the cruise ship terminal we’ll be visiting soon, and the
9-mile-long Rio-Niteroi bridge across the Guanabara Bay. One interesting thing about Rio is its domestic
airport is located right next
 |
| airport on the bay |
 |
| beautiful customs house |
to the bay. This is the airport we arrived at and
as we were landing it seemed as though we were going to land on the water.
 |
| Guanabara Bay bridge |
To our surprise when Luis picked us up we learned that
lunch was part of today’s tour…nice! A Brazilian BBQ seems to be something not
to be missed when in Rio. The restaurant was exactly the same as Brazilian
places in Calgary…meat, meat and you guessed it more MEAT! We started with a salad bar that was
a meal in itself, then came the main attraction…probably 10 kinds of meat options
including chicken heart which I had to try!! Despite being glued to the game, waiters
were eagerly waiting for us to flip our “please don’t bring me any more meat” sign,
to “bring on the meat” as soon as we flipped to green they were on us! More skewers
of meat than you ever thought possible, carved right onto your plate! My
favourite may have been the beef filled with oozing blue cheese, oh and the tiny
cheese filled garlic buns also skewered. Oh, and the skillet (not a skewer) of
melted cheese just scooped right onto your plate!! To top this carnivorous feed-fest
off was ice cream…not on a skewer. All of this was  |
| MEAT!!! |
washed down with a caipirinha and
ended with a shot of cachaça from the world's biggest booze bottle. None of this was heart healthy, but sure was stomach and palate pleasing!
 |
| more MEAT!!! |
We arrived at lunch
just as the World Cup final was starting…perfect timing I guess. There were plenty
of TVs in the restaurant for viewing…I’m not sure who was keener to watch…customers
or staff. Our meal ended just as over time was starting, so Luis got us another
Uber and we raced back to our hotel bar (saying 'tchau' to Luis along the way) to
watch the rest. Although Brazil wasn’t in the final, there were plenty of
 |
| hello giant cachaça!! |
people everywhere watching…TVs on the beach, TVs in bars spilling onto the road
and TVs in hotel bars…definitely an atmosphere! We didn’t actually see the
final goal until replays because the hotel TV feed froze (typical of TV here), when it came back
Argentina was celebrating. We heard most Brazilians didn’t like Argentina and
expected most to be cheering for France, but I’d say it was about 50/50. |
| Argentina wins!!! |
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