It turns out that we were in Rio for Carnaval, and we did buy tickets and transportation to the Carnaval parade from a local company (DoBrazilRight).
We wound up being held on the ship for 3 hours after we were supposed to get off (presumably due to issues related to the coronaviris). This completely screwed up shore excursions for most passengers, but not for us, since we had planned to spend the day wandering the town.
When we did get off the ship, we walked about a half a mile into the center of Rio. Some shots from the first part of our walk are below. Lots of nice late-19th century buildings with iron facades along the way.
Near the center of the city, we visited the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was completed in the 1970's.
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| American tourist in front of the cathedral |
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| Interior view of the cathedral |
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| Cathedral bell tower at left |
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| A building near the cathedral |
From the cathedral, we walked to the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, which is connected to the cathedral area by the Carioca Aqueduct, which is now used as a railroad bridge.
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| Santa Teresa neighborhood |
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| The aqueduct/bridge |
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| A view in the other direction |
Up to this point, we hadn't seen much evidence of Carnaval activity, but the folks in Santa Teresa were starting to celebrate.
Below are a few scenes from Santa Teresa. They have raised graffiti (literally) to a new level.
One of the big attractions in Santa Teresa is the Selaron Steps, a long series of steps decorated in tiles. Unfortunately, the Carnaval crowds were so big, you couldn't see much of the steps.
Late in the afternoon, we took a taxi back to the ship to prepare for our evening at the Carnaval parade. Unfortunately, by that time it had started raining.
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| Area next to the ship's dock. That's a tram in front. |
About an hour before we were about to get on the shuttle bus, the heavens opened up. Several people on the ship decided not to go and were selling their tickets. I bought a plastic poncho for about $5.00, which turned out to be an excellent investment.
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| Pouring rain at the ship dock |
We arrived at the Sambadrome at about 10:00. As soon as we got to our seats, the rain stopped.
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| Great seats! |
At about 10:45 PM, a crew of precision (really) street sweepers came out and swept the remaining water from the parade route.
The first parade started at about 11:00 PM. Each parade is a separate Samba school, and each school has multiple of groups, and is allocated up to 75 minutes for their parade. Below is a 30-second (more or less) video from the parade.
I took lots of pictures and couldn't figure out which ones to toss, so here they all are. The parade as absolutely amazing. Happy scrolling!
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| Click on the picture to see a slide show with enlarged pictures |
We decided to leave at about 1:00 AM, after the second parade. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake, because all of the tourists decided to leave then, and the shuttle busses were mobbed.
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| Concessions area on our way out (Bob's Burgers) |
To top it off, our bus driver got lost (lots of streets were closed), and we didn't get back to the ship until 2:00 AM. Fortunately, we didn't (like many passengers) have an early morning excursion the next day.
Next: Day 9--Another day in Rio
