January 23, 2026 - Day #19

 This is day 1 of 3 in Rio de Janeiro. We arrived about 7:00 am this morning and our Stateroom faces the port, so we get to see the activities in the city. More on this later, but we did sit on our balcony and watch the workers unload several 18 wheelers of their numerous pallets of supplies for the ship. Got to watch the drug dog work to make sure we aren’t loading contraband. We did not schedule a tour for today, just wanted to get a feel for the city. At about 11:15 we headed off ship to go to get a shuttle to the shopping mall and Copacabana Beach. Found out the buses were not running for two hours for their lunch break. Apparently this was noted on the schedule at the Destinations Desk, but not any of our schedules. We decided to go back on the ship and have our lunch. The good news is that I did find a shop in the terminal that had Tanquary gin. That works for me. We did get back off ship to take a bus to a dinner theater for the evening. This is called the Roxy Theater. Good meal and a very entertaining high energy show on the cultures of the five areas of Brazil. See the pictures.

Some information about Rio de Janeiro. This is a city of about 14 million people and called Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City or Wonderful City). Some famous sites in this city are Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugarloaf mountain, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. They have a huge Carnival celebration in February that is planned a year in advance. They actually have an area of stadium seating along the route for over 70,000 spectators with over one million people along the parade route. We can see lots of preparations in the city for the festival and they are talking about all the parties and activities to prepare for the main celebration. Rio is the second largest city in the country and was the capital city for a period of time, but it was decided to move the capital to a city more in the center of the country. December through March is the rainy season with temperatures about 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) with expected blue skies for a part of each day.