Tango, Salsa & Samba Voyage Cruise
on the Azamara Pursuit
12/8/19 to 12/21/19

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Page 1 – Pre-Cruise in Buenos Aires, Embarkation & Ship
Page 2 – Cabin, Dining, Activities, Entertainment Ports of Call: Montevideo, Uruguay
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Sao Paulo (Santos), Brazil; Parati, Brazil; Buzios, Brazil
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Punta Del Este, Uruguay

Ports of Call (Continued)

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Day 1

At long last, I was going to finally get to see Rio. The Captain said that we should be out on the open decks by 6:30 AM for our entrance. With the sun rising at around 5:00 AM, we would be arriving in broad daylight. When I got up to deck 10, I was thrilled to see the 2.4-mile-wide Copacabana Beach in the distance, with Sugar Loaf mountain to the far right of it.

I kept trying to find the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of a mountain but couldn’t find it. The clouds were still covering it. I sure hoped it would clear up before we got there later in the day.

This would be a very full and exciting touring day. Bob had booked a private tour through the ship that would take us to the Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugar Loaf mountain and Copacabana Beach. When I put on my telephoto lens, I could see the funicular that goes to the top of Sugar Loaf. It is actually a two-step funicular, with the first leg going to another peak.

We pulled up to the dock with several long orange brick buildings. There was a large Ferris wheel not far away. I was so excited to be able to spend two and half days in this most exciting and beautiful city.

Upon leaving the ship, we met up with our guide for the day, Daniel. Now this was one very nice guy to spend a day in Rio with. He was so personable, knowledgeable and just a person who really enjoyed being a guide. We lucked out on getting a really good one for this most important day of the cruise for me.

We had a large 13 passenger van for the five of us. It was most comfortable, and we were easily able to hear everything that Daniel was telling us during our drives.

He wanted to take us first to see the Christ the Redeemer statue, since it would be less crowded earlier than later. When we arrived at the cog-wheel train station, there was a small Cristo statue to greet us. Fortunately, it was nothing like the real thing.

Upon entering the terminal, there was a good size line waiting to buy tickets to get to the top of Mount Corcovado. Conveniently for us, someone had already purchased our tickets and he gave them to Daniel, who gave them to each of us. We walked out to the boarding platform where there were a few other people waiting for the train. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the train to arrive, but in that time the crowd grew considerably.

The train cars appeared to be brand new and were quite comfortable. Daniel had told us to try to sit on the right side for the best views of the statue on the way up. More importantly, the right side was in the shade most of the time. There is only one track, so on the way up, we had to pull over on a siding to wait for the train coming down to pass us. It seemed to take forever for us to start back up the track, but the total time up was only about 20 minutes. The excitement to get to the top did make it seem much longer. On the way up, I only saw a brief view of the statue one time on the right for a very brief moment, but I was thrilled to see that the clouds around it I saw earlier were totally gone.

After leaving the train when we got to the top, I took a photo of the train.

We walked over to the short line waiting for the elevators that would take us up to the base of the statue. When we got off the elevator, we then had to walk up a flight of steps, but my attention was on the back of the statue.

The viewing areas were quite crowded. We all had to stop and take photos of the magnificent views from the mountain top. I did take one panorama photo of the area, but it just can’t show the true beauty of this amazing place.

Everyone had to have their photo taken with Sugar Loaf Mountain in the background, so of course, I did too.

It is difficult to get good photos of the statue from right around the statue base. Plus, there were people laying on the ground trying to take photos and other with their arms spread like the statue praying and/or taking selfies.

Daniel told us to go out to the patio extension in front of the statue and down the steps for a better view. He was right! He took a group photo of the five of us, but there is no way to get a photo without many people around you.

The further out I went on the extension, I was able to see more of the statue and base. It is a gorgeous iconic statue! I took so many photos of it. I wanted to make sure I got a good one, since I know I will probably never be back in Rio.

I then went around the statue taking different photos of the very beautiful surroundings. Daniel had said we were lucky that it wasn’t too crowded, especially with this being a Sunday. I can’t imagine what it would be like when it was really crowded.

Behind the statue at the base is a small chapel. I couldn’t get an inside photo of the room, since some type of service was taking place in it.

The ride back down was much slower. We had to wait for two train cars going up at the siding before we were allowed to go back down. It took twice as long, 40 minutes.

Leaving the train terminal, there were displays of the older trains that were used. It made us appreciate the new ones that much more. This particular train was used between 1910 through 1975.

On the way to the next stop, I was able to get a quick photo of the Royal Palace. It isn’t a great photo, but you will get the idea. It looks like a nice place.

We arrived at the funicular station for the first leg of the ride up to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. Once again Daniel was given the tickets, so we didn’t have to wait in that line.

There was a fairly long que to enter the cars; but it moved pretty fast. Unlike at the Christ the Redeemer train station, there were two paths, one up and one down; plus, these cars moved much faster over a shorter distance.

On the ride up, we could look down at one of Rio’s many beaches.

When we reached the first stop, we took a path to the next station that took us through a very tropical environment. They had some lovely orchids in one area.

At the end of that path, we came to a very long queue to the next funicular ride to the top of Sugar Loaf. We were standing in the hot sun, but the line did move quickly enough where we were only in the line for about 10 minutes.

The cars were packed full of tourists anxious to see the views from above.

When we arrived at the top, there were lots of shops and restaurants. But most importantly, there were so many awesome viewing sites.

I was surprised that I could barely even see the Christ the Redeemer statue from Sugar loaf. In the below photo, you can see it way in the distance in the center of the photo that I took of Paul and Gail. I was able to get a better shot with a longer lens, but the photo shows how far away it really is.

From a different viewpoint, I could see the beautiful 2.4-mile-long curved Copacabana beach in the distance.

We were so lucky that we were having beautiful weather for our visit, especially since it was a relatively clear day. It would not be that way when we left Rio.

When we were making our way back down the mountain, we walked over to a small viewing area at the intermediate point to take some shots of Sugar Loaf. It is quite a great place to visit.

Back at ground level, I took a photo of the Monument to the Heroes of Laguna and Dourados, which memorialized the heroes of battles in the Paraguayan war of the 1860’s.

It was 1:00 PM and we were ready for a small lunch. Since we were going to visit Copacabana Beach next, Daniel recommended a beach restaurant for us, Rayz. It was right on the beach. Daniel took our photo.

After placing our orders, I headed onto the beach to take some photos. It was a beautiful beach, but quite crowded. It was difficult to find a path to the water.

The spot where Daniel had us dropped off was a great one. It was close to the end of the beach and was next to rock faced mountain, which made it an even prettier location.

I walked out on to the wide tiled sidewalk next to the restaurant to take a photo of the sidewalk pattern. It was just like those in Lisbon.

Since we had spent well over an hour at Copacabana, we needed to start heading back to the port. We had originally planned on stopping at Ipanema Beach also; but since we had already had plenty of beach time, we were fine with just driving by and looking at it. Since it was a smaller beach, it was even more crowded.

During the ride back, we passed by the large lake in the center of Rio, the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. We had seen it when at Mount Corcovado. It is apparently quite a polluted lake but is also quite pretty. There were some nice developments on it.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our first day in Rio. We had seen all of the “must see” places and had a great time doing it.

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Day 2

For day 2 we had originally planned on vising a few places around the city that were close to the port. One of them was the Museum of Tomorrow. Unfortunately, it was closed on Sunday and Monday, so Paul, Gail and I booked a ship walking tour called “The Secrets of Rio – Local Style”. The agenda had a lot of items on it that sounded most interesting. Bob and Holly decided to do a self guided tour. We met our guide Carmen as we exited the ship. Now she was a high energy enthusiastic guide. She made that day’s tour a real treat. She first passed out the headsets we would use so that we could hear her commentary. During the tour some of us had issues with the receiving device. I had to constantly change channels to hear her. But I got the gist of what she was saying, and she was talking loud enough where I could hear without the headphones if I was close to her.

Just outside the terminal building along Olympic Boulvard is the largest graffiti mosaic in the world at 623 feet. It is titled Ethnicities and has five faces of indigenous people from around the world. I just loved the detail of this artwork and are including each of them below. It was most frustrating that I wasn’t able to take a straight on photo of the mural.

As we continued down Olympic Boulevard, we could see the Christ the Redeemer statue way in the distance on top of Mount Corcovado.

We came to some more pretty street art further down the street.

Along the sidewalk was a tree that was definitely not one that you would want to lean on. That is one wicked looking trunk.

We passed by the Museum of the Future that we had originally hoped to visit that day. Close by was Monument to the Viscount of Mauá. The viscount was an entrepreneur, industrialist and politician. He was also one of the richest people in the world in the 1800’s.

Our first destination was the Abbey of our Lady of Monterrat, which is more commonly referred to as the Monastery of San Bento. Construction of the abbey was completed in 1671. It was up a hill in a secluded walled off area. The exterior gave no hint of what was waiting for us inside.

As we entered the monastery, we could not believe our eyes. The whole place was covered in ornate gold decorations. It was over the top in opulence, but oh so beautiful too. I know that there are a lot of photos, but hopefully not too many.

There were tomb markers inlaid on the floor.

When we left the monastery after the visual overload, we came to the peaceful statue of, I assume, St. Bento (St. Benedict) in the garden.

Continuing our walk, we came to the beautiful Candelária Church. I wish that we could have gone inside, since photos of the interior I saw online looked very nice.

Across from the church is the cauldron used for the flame in Rio’s 2016 Olympics. The cauldron was moved to this location from the Olympic Stadium.

Our next stop was at a Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, which is a museum, for a restroom break. We didn’t need to buy tickets to see the display near the entrance of a pyramid and Egyptian statue. It looked like a nice museum and one that I would have like to return to had we had enough time in Rio.

We then stopped at a well-known old town Rio restaurant, Cais do Oriente, that Carmen said we might want to return to when we were hungry. I liked the spiral staircase.

We continued walking down the interesting narrow streets. Carmen was telling us about the foods Brazilians eat, so she took us into another local restaurant to show them to us on a buffet line.

Further along we came to a very nice equestrian statue. It was the statue of war hero, General Manuel Luís Osório. Unfortunately, some of the metal plates, including the name plate, had been stolen to sell for metal. I was glad that the relief on the side was still there

Carmen than took us to a well-known coffee shop called the Colombo Confeiteria. The place was very crowded. It was also a very beautiful place, with so much to look at. Carmen told us that she would purchase a food item and drink for us. We just needed to choose from the many delicious looking items. It was a difficult decision. She also told us where we would be able to find tables to sit at. After walking two hours in some very hot humid weather, we were definitely ready for a coffee break. It was most welcome.

We then continued our walk around the city enjoying the sites. I liked the tile decorated sidewalks.

There was also an interesting relief on the side of building across from our next destination.

We could see the top of the pyramid shaped modern Catholic church above the trees and the tall tower with a cross on top across from it.

As we got closer, we could see that this was one huge church. It is unfortunate that the exterior had not been cleaned in a while and it was much darker than when it was new. But it was still most impressive.

Carmen told us that the church is not air conditioned, but that it is cooled naturally. She was right! As we walked in it was much cooler inside. It was also quite a site with the four massive stained-glass walls on each corner of the building. Only three of them can be photographed at one time, even with a very wide-angle lens. Walking around the outside wall gives you an appreciaion for the size of this huge building.

I took photos of each of the stained-glass walls to show the detail.

There was a large crucifix hanging above the altar. But it was difficult to see due to the stained glass behind it, unless at the correct angle from it.

Carmen said that we would be heading to the metro to ride back to the ship. That was great news to hear, since I wasn’t looking forward to walking back in the heat. On the way to the metro, she took us to an area with some gorgeous buildings. We came to the side of the opera house that is modeled after the one in Paris. As I came around to the front, it was even more beautiful.

It was difficult to see the large dome on top with the gold eagle above it, unless you were further away from the building and at the correct angle. At times like these it would be nice to have a drone mounted camera to take it all in.

There were two other government buildings that were quite pretty, but the trees made it difficult to take good photos of them.

The metro car arrived shortly after we got to the stop. These were very modern comfortable cars. It didn’t take too long to get back to the port area. It had been a most interesting and enjoyable tour. I was so glad that we booked it. We never would have been able to see so much had we tried to do it on our own.

We wanted to rest up some before the ships evening activities. We would be experiencing our first Azamara White Night event. Photos of it are in the entertainment section of the review.

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Day 3

After the exciting and late ending evening activities, I was able to sleep in, since there were no planned tours. With the ship leaving port at 1:00 PM, there wasn’t a lot of time to explore. But since the Museum of the Future was only about a half mile walk from the ship, it seemed like a great thing to do with limited time. Looking online, I found out that museum opened at 10:00 AM and that it was free on Tuesdays. That meant that it would probably be pretty crowded. Paul, Gail and I left the ship at 9:30 AM. It was already pretty warm in the sun. The long port buildings provided a covered walkway for most of the walk, which was greatly appreciated. By the time we got to the museum, there was already a very long line waiting to enter.

We had read that they do limit the number of people that are allowed to enter the museum at one time, so I was a bit concerned that we might not be able to get in. Once the doors opened, the line moved pretty fast. The line behind us had grown significantly. They also were able to get in, so the museum does hold a lot of people.

Once we entered the building, our attention was drawn to the large orb floating above that had the image of a rotating globe on it.

We went up to the second floor where all the exhibits were located. There were several different types of exhibits that we could walk through to see pictures or videos.

We then walked into the entrance of a dark room where two pieces of fabric were floating and moving in rapid motion to mimic the ocean currents. I took a short video of it, since a still photo just doesn’t cut it for something like this.

We saw several other exhibits that were beautifully done. Like the previous ones, they mostly dealt with saving the environment. I was surprised with there being so many people in the building that it appeared that there were very few visitors at the exhibits.

When we reached the end of the building, there was a wall of glass looking out at the bay. There was an interesting looking piece of artwork in the center of the outside open area.

We walked down a long corridor back to the entry. We had a different view of the floating globe from behind.

As we left the museum, I got a kick out of a fellow who was dressed up like shrub. People do funny things.

As we returned to the ship, I was able to finally get a good photo of the port facility with the tall clock tower, that I had been trying to get for days.

When I got back on the ship, I went up to the top deck of the ship to see if I could capture the entire Ethnicities mural. It was by far the best way to capture it all in one frame other than by using a drone camera.

Before we left Rio, they had a special buffet setup on the pool deck, the Officers Barbecue lunch. I was surprised that they were doing an outdoor meal in the heat of the day, especially just after the previous night’s outdoor White Night dinner. With it starting at 12:30 PM, it was in the heat of the day and it was very hot in the sun. Fortunately, Paul and Gail had secured a table in a shaded area. It was still warm, but with the mild breeze, it was tolerable. The food was outstanding with delicious barbecued ribs. The highlight being a suckling pig who had sacrificed his life for the event.

I ate quickly so that I would be able to take photos as we were leaving port. We left a little late because the evening’s guest entertainer was late arriving at the ship. Rather than going up to deck 10 to take photos, I went to the promenade on deck 5. It was the right choice, since it was covered and protected from the hot sun. It was a most pleasant way to enjoy sailaway. I was able to get photos of the Museum of the Future from angles not possible from land. It is a lovely facility. I could also see, way in the distance, the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Corcovado Mountain. The haze was worse this day than than our others in Rio.

As we moved further out into the bay, I heard something that sounded like canons blasts. I then saw several naval vessels, including an aircraft carrier and submarine. Sailors were lined up on the decks at attention in their white uniforms. Tony had said something about it on the PA system while we were leaving, but it was difficult to understand. Whatever they were doing, it was nice to observe.

I took a lot of photos while we were sailing away, but most are pretty hazy. I do want to include a few, especially the below one that shows the shape of Mount Corcovado from a different angle.

As we approached Sugar Loaf, it was much clearer, since we were much closer to it. I took way too many photos of this iconic mountain from every angle. I will only include a few.

A cloud kept trying to cover the top, making for a pretty photo.

After passing by Sugar Loaf, we were able to get a nice view of Copacabana Beach. The Pursuit will return to Rio for New Years and be anchored off the beach for the fireworks display. That should be something.

I took lots of photos from the ship before saying goodbye to Rio. Rio moved to the top of my list of major cities in a beautiful setting. Vancouver, BC just moved to number two. Rio is just a stunning place.

Once we left the bay, the seas got much rougher. Both Gail and Holly suffered a little motion sickness. I had taken a of couple ginger pills to make sure it wouldn’t affect me. During the night, it got much rougher. The Captain said on the next day’s announcement that they hadn’t expected them to be as rough as they were. Bags were set out around the ship in case passengers got sick. By mid-morning it smoothed out to a more tolerable level.