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Transatlantic Cruise – Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro
 
In November we once again left our house to the dogs and our house sitter, and flew to Lisbon.  We planned to be there four nights, and then embark on the Holland America Lines ship Rotterdam for a transatlantic cruise to Rio de Janeiro. 

Our flight to Lisbon

Our flight routing was San Diego - Atlanta – Paris – Lisbon.  We had plenty of time between connections so we anticipated a rather long (15 hours flying time) but uneventful trip to Lisbon.  Things began to get interesting an hour or so out of Atlanta.  A passenger in the row ahead of us went into diabetic shock.  The flight crew asked if there was a doctor on board.  Within a few minutes we had a doctor, a nurse-practitioner and an RN all helping.  It was pretty impressive to see them at work (from our front row seat).  We began to get a little concerned about making our connection to Paris when they asked how far it was to the nearest airport, but things were resolved satisfactorily and the patient was taken off in a wheel chair at Atlanta.
Our flight to Paris on Air France was comfortable, if long (8 ½ hours).  Our pain was eased somewhat by two pretty decent meals, Champagne, and unlimited wine.  French of course.
 
Navigating the airport at Paris (Charles de Gaulle) was an experience.  The airport is still under construction and there doesn’t seem to be a direct route between any two points.  We cleared immigration quickly then began looking for our connecting flight gate.  There were plenty of signs but sometimes they seemed to direct us in circles.  We had more than an hour scheduled for our connection but it took us 45 minutes to find the gate for our Lisbon flight.  It was an hour behind schedule, so it didn’t matter much.

Security isn’t anywhere near as strict as at home.  There were signs posted about carrying liquids aboard but they weren’t enforcing the restrictions.  Pam asked if she should take her shoes off and the inspector said “No, this is not the United States.”
 
When we reached our gate we found a large crowd of soccer fans from Scotland.  Their team, the Celtics was to play a team from Portugal in Lisbon.  There were twenty or so on our flight, all wearing green and white shirts, and all ready for a party.  They had managed to bring a cooler of beer through the security check point and were beginning their celebrations at the gate.

Lisbon, Portugal
 
Arrival in Lisbon was a breeze – no customs inspector, no immigration processing.  We grabbed a taxi from in front of the terminal, showed him the card from our hotel (which I had kept from our previous trip to Lisbon) and a half-hour later we were on Praça Restauradores.  A short half-block down a pedestrian-only street and we were at the Residêncial Florescente.  When we checked in we found our room was one floor above street level over the hotel entrance.  The hotel was full, so we were stuck there for the first night.  They agreed to move us to a room in the back the next day.
 
This is a popular hotel among Europeans – the only Americans who seem to know about it are those who follow the Rick Steves guidebooks.  When we stayed here in May of 2003 it was not at all crowded.  This time it was full.  Fortunately they had renovated the public areas so it didn’t seem overcrowded.
 
We were pretty tired from our trip over – it had been just 24 hours since we got up Tuesday morning – so we decided to walk around the neighbor hood and grab a bite to eat.  Our misgivings about our first-floor room were well founded.  A floodlight on the front of the hotel kept our room well lit, even with the drapes closed.  A few hundred of the Celtics football (soccer) club fans seemed to be celebrating in the street below well into the evening, climbing on statues, wading in the fountains.  Or maybe they were trying to drown their sorrows, since they lost to Portugal.  Not our most restful night.

By Thursday we had pretty well recovered from our jet lag, so we decided we would renew our acquaintance with Lisbon.  We bought multi-ride trolley passes and caught one of their picturesque vintage trolleys up toward the castle.  We were interested to learn that the Lisbon transportation system has now incorporated RFI technology.  The pass card doesn’t have a magnetic strip, just an imbedded RFI chip of some kind.  You pass it across the black circle on the fare box and it deducts from the value of the card and tells you how much credit you have remaining.  Some people didn’t even take the card out of their wallet, and several people had little leather card holders.
 
I don’t think they have all the bugs out of the system yet.  Some people seemed to be having trouble getting their cards to work and we got shortchanged a couple of rides.
 
On our trolley ride we recognized the patio above the Alfama district where we had watched the bicycle races in 2003.  What else could we do but get off and have some refreshment!
 
It was starting to rain so we decided to return to the hotel.  By this time they had a new room for us, on the top floor in back.  Much quieter!
 
After we moved to our new room we decided to take the Metro to São Sebastian and the Spanish department store, El Corte Inglés. 
 
They have a wonderful food court, which is a good place for lunch.  It was still raining so we got big bowls of soup.  Yum, yum!  Here we go, eating our way across Portugal again.
 
In addition to the food court, a cinema multiplex and a department store comparable to Nordstrom’s, El Corte Inglés also has a large supermarket.  We visited their wine department to stock up for the cruise.  I thought we should see if they carried “Dois Euro Carlos” wine, but alas, we had to settle for the local varietals.  We did pick up a couple of bottles of their store brand, but for the most part we just bought wines with attractive labels, as always.  They had tasting stations (just like Costco) where they were offering samples of cheese, so we just had to buy some.  We bought eight bottles of wine and a bottle of Champagne, just enough to get us through the cruise, at least to the first port.  Actually, we drank some of it in Lisbon.
 
By the time we lugged our wine back to the hotel, the rain had let up, so we started walking around the area near our hotel.  We were near Praça Restauradores, Praça da Figueira, Rossio (the train station), and Praça do Comércio.  They were in the process of erecting a huge metal pipe framework for a stylized Christmas tree in the Praça do Comércio.   (The construction was complete by the time we left Lisbon.)

Returning to the hotel, as we were walking through the Praça da Figueira, we found a pasteleira (pastry shop) with pasteis de nata in the window.  These are our favorites, which we discovered in Belém in 2003.  Finding this shop so close to our hotel was great, as it saved us a trip to Belém.  We ate a couple on the spot (just to check the quality) and bought a half-dozen to take with us.
 
 
Cascais
 
Friday it wasn’t raining too hard so we decided to take the train to Cascais, a fishing village/resort just a few miles up the coast from Lisbon.  This was a simple trip, Metro to Cais de Sodre train station, and then a train to the end of the line.  It was less than an hour’s ride.   I should mention that the subway in Lisbon is very clean, and very efficient.  It is easy to find your way around and quite inexpensive.  The same can be said for the trains.
 
 
 
 
 
Our primary motivation was prawns.  We decided we would find better seafood at the smaller seaside town.  As it was, we could have done just as well in Lisbon.  Same prices, same selection.  Cascais is a nice town with some interesting buildings and streets.  We enjoyed watching the fishermen getting ready to go out, loading their nets and lobster cages.  It didn’t rain on us too much, so it was a good day.
 
 
 
 
 

On our return trip we decided to stop once again at the El Corte Inglés department store.  That’s when the fun began.  First, our passes no longer worked to let us exit the Metro.  You use your ticket to enter, and then use it again to go through the exit gate.  We couldn’t get out.  After trying all of the gates to see if our tickets would work somewhere, we finally just got on the heels of another passenger and followed them out.
 
Then we got to El Corte Inglés.  We wanted to go up to the housewares department, on the 5th floor.  When we got on the elevator, we noticed it seemed to be moving pretty slowly.  In fact, it wasn’t moving much at all.  There were two other couples with us, and one man started pushing buttons – to no effect.  We were stuck.
 
We pushed the alarm button and soon had rapid Portuguese coming from the speaker.  Pam and I were definitely just along for the ride from this point on.  It took about 15 minutes for them to get the doors open, and we were between floors.  A lot of discussion, and I think some hand cranking later, they finally got us up to floor level and we were able to get out.  We decided to take the escalator the rest of the way.
 
Évora

Saturday was supposed to be another rainy day.  We had planned to go to Évora, a small town a couple of hours from Lisbon, for the day.  We decided we would ignore the weather forecast, take our umbrellas, and go see this old city anyway.  We took another Metro ride, this time to the bus station, and caught the next bus to Évora.  This was really a nice ride across rolling countryside and through fields of vineyards and cork trees.  Real handy that they grow the grapes and corks all in the same area.
 
This was a Roman city for a few hundred years, so there is a temple and the remains of some Roman walls to be seen.  Most of the Roman buildings are covered up by more modern structures (i.e. buildings only a thousand years or so old).  There was a triumphal arch in the city center (forum) but it was torn down to make room for a church.  (Just like in Italy!)  Across from the Roman temple was housed the tribunal of the Inquisition.  During this period some 5,000 (innocent) people were condemned and burned to death in the city.

One of the unusual sites is a chapel next to a church that is made of bones and about 5,000 skulls.  The chapel was built by three monks in the 1600s who were concerned about the way society in this wealthy town was going.  They thought it would be a helpful place to meditate on the transience of material things in the undeniable presence of death.
 

We stopped for a traditional dish for dinner, feijoada.  It is a combination of pork, sausage, beans, onions, carrots and a few other things we couldn’t identify.  It was delicious, very filling, and went well with a bottle of local wine.  We were very relaxed on the bus ride back to Lisbon.
 
 
M/S Rotterdam
 
The Rotterdam has been in port at Lisbon for five days, replenishment and some refurbishing.  We met a couple from Toronto who had been on the ship on a transit from Greece.  They had been required to leave the ship while in Lisbon and find a hotel.
 
We took a taxi to the cruise port, Da Rocha, on Sunday morning, hoping to beat the crowd.  A lot of other people had the same idea.  It took us about an hour to get to the front of the line to get processed, then another five minutes to get all the paperwork taken care of.  Another short line to get through security and we were able to board.  We checked out our stateroom and then headed to the Lido Deck for lunch.
 
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the ship, touring the spa, finding the library and internet center, and generally trying to keep from being lost.  In the afternoon we met up with the other two couples we had arranged our Casablanca tour with.  At five we watched the ship get underway and then went to dinner.  We had elected to take the early dinner, so we were seated at 5:45 pm.  There are two early seatings, 5:45 and 6:15, depending on whether you are seated in the upper or lower part of the dining room.
 
Casablanca
 
We pulled into Casablanca with the assistance of a couple of tugs.  Our first hint we were in a third world country was when we saw the dock workers wearing sandals.  No OSHA here!
 
 
We had arranged with two other couples to take a private tour of the city.  Our tour guide met us on the pier as scheduled, with a very nice air conditioned van.  The fun began as we tried to leave the pier area.  The taxis were restricted from the area and all the taxi drivers were upset that our driver had picked us up at the ship.  There was a lot of angry shouting in Arabic, grabbing for papers, banging on windows, the police got involved, and we had to return to the ship so the driver could see some official or other.  All in all a pretty ugly scene. 

Things were pretty well resolved after a half-hour or so and we headed for the city.  There seem to be very few tourist attractions in Casablanca as it is mostly a center of commerce.  The big attraction is the large, fairly new mosque.  I think it is the third largest in the world.  Our guide avoided the regular tour routes by bribing the guards (he said).  We did get to see some areas that had no other tourists, including the washrooms where the men were taking their pre-prayer baths.  It felt a little strange to be in what we thought was a private area.
 
We did see a lot of beautiful stone work and mosaics.  The ladies got to investigate the women’s section and their unusual facilities.
 

We found it even more interesting to wander through the city markets.  I think city markets are much the same world over, at least in the more undeveloped countries.  The difference is usually in the products offered.  This is usually most readily apparent in the kind of foodstuffs available and the way it is presented.  Most of the produce we saw we recognized.   Lots of grapes, olives and citrus.  Snails also seemed to be popular – I suppose because of the French heritage (escargot).  It was interesting watching the vendor trying to keep his wares from crawling out of his display.
 
We really enjoyed the meat market.  We learned that camels are not just for riding!
 
 
 
       
 
 
We had another building or two to visit, including a royal palace (which we could only view from the exterior).  There were two guards outside the entrance and we were told not to take their picture.  (Their picture is here on the right.)          
 
Like all tours, there seems to be an obligatory stop at a place where you are encouraged to spend a lot of money so that the guide can get a nice bonus from the kickbacks.  In our case this was a carpet store.  We were seated and provided with a nice demonstration of the different kinds of carpets available in Casablanca.  Actually we found them to be quite beautiful and we would have been tempted to buy a few if we had won the California lottery.  Our first clue was when they said they would ship them home for us free.   Right!
 
Just out of curiosity I asked what the asking price was for one of the smaller carpets (about 5 x 7 feet).  Only $3,500.  Unfortunately when I asked the price this made them think they had a live one and then we had some difficulty escaping the premises.  Everyone else in the tour thanked me for distracting the sales staff while they escaped!
 
We did have a nice, if expensive, lunch.  Then a bit of haggling with the tour guide because he was unhappy with the size of his tip.  He wanted us to reimburse him for all the bribes he had paid.
 
We had an interesting cultural experience.  Would I return to Casablanca?  No.
 
On to the Canary Islands.
 
Lanzarote
 
We cruised overnight and arrived the next morning at Arrecife on Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands.  The Canaries are a province of Spain and the currency is the Euro.  We had not realized this and had managed to get rid of most of our Euros in Lisbon.  We had arranged for our tour through the ship before we left home so that really wasn’t much of a problem.

We spent no time in Arrecife as we were scheduled for an 8 hour tour.  Spawned by extreme volcanic activity more than 20 million years ago, the rugged Lanzarote landscape offers some of the world’s most dramatic scenery (quoting from the tour guide).  This is no exaggeration.  Our tour took us first to the Timanfaya National Park where we were introduced to the stark volcanic landscape and a prime tourist attraction, a camel ride.  This was only a short experience, a 20-minute ride up a hill and back, but fun.  It was not the most comfortable way to travel, and not something I would want to experience for a whole day.  Still, a bit of fun.  At least they don’t eat their camels here.
 
 
From there we went to visit a winery and tasted two of their more popular varieties of wine.  The first was a very dry white which was delicious.  We bought a bottle to take back to the ship.  The other was a very, very sweet muscatel.  Not to our taste at all.
Their vineyards are very unusual.  Lanzarote has only 3 or 4 inches of rainfall a year.  There is a layer of volcanic ash and cinders on top of the soil.  This volcanic layer insulates the soil and helps to retain the moisture.  Their way of farming is to dig a hole for the plant, insulate it with volcanic soil and build a rock wall as a wind break.  It seems to work.
    
 
 
 
 
Much of the volcanic action was a recent as 300 years ago, when a large rift opened.  A large portion of the island is made up of lava fields.  There are still some areas that are considered active.  We visited one area which had been developed for the tourists.  Here we were able to try to hold some very (very!) hot rocks and see the effect of throwing water down a pipe into the hot area (just a few feet below the surface).  The restaurant has an unusual barbeque grill where they cook chickens.  They told us it had been in continuous use for 35 years.
 
 
We followed our visit to the active area with a long bus ride to the coast.  Pretty spectacular views, lots of craters.  Truly memorable.
 
 
     
Tenerife

Another short overnight trip and we arrived at Tenerife, still in the Canary Islands.  It was almost as if we were back in Europe.  We acquired a few Euros from an ATM, and then found we didn’t need them.  This is really a nice city.  Extremely clean, very cosmopolitan.  It appears to be a major destination for vacationing Europeans.
 
 
  
 
 

Well, it’s on to the Cape Verde Islands.
 
 Mindelo, São Vicente
 
The Cape Verde islands are a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Africa, just about even with Dakar.  They are a former Portuguese possession until they achieved independence in the 1980’s.
Cape Verde provided fueling and supply stations for early sailing vessels, and later a key stopping point in the slave trade. 
Up to the present, there has been little development for tourism.  The islands are fairly poor and the population is largely Creole with substantial immigration from Senegal.  A measure of how poor these islands are is the complete absence of any shore excursions sold on the ship.
 
We decided to limit our sightseeing to a walk around town.  We found an internet site (a Cyber Café) and spent an hour checking emails and uploading some photos.  We then stopped at the sidewalk café (notice I said “the”, not “a” sidewalk café) and enjoyed a cold beer.  We had used a 5 Euro note to pay for the internet (2 Euros per hour) and received our change in the local currency, escudos.  The beer cost us 200 escudos, which left 150 to get rid of before we returned to the ship.  We stopped in a market and bargained for two more beers for our remaining funds.  Then, back to the ship.  This experience was remarkably like my experiences in the Navy!
 
Praia, Santiago
 
Praia is the capital city of Cape Verde.  I believe the word Praia in Portuguese must translate to “sleepy town”.  Maybe it was just because we arrived on Sunday.  The shuttle bus took us to the main square of the city, Praça Albuquerque where we saw dozens of tourists wandering around and a few of the locals staring at these strangers from another world.  Nothing seemed to be open for business except the church, which was packed.
 
The city market was closed, which was a bit of a surprise to us.  In most of the places we have visited, Sunday is a big market day.  That may have something to do with tourism.  Our friends rented a taxi and had a tour of the island (as they had done in Mindelo).  I really don’t think there was anything much to see anywhere.
 
We asked a policeman if there was anything open and he pointed to the island cultural center.  This had a few offices (closed) for organizations such as the “Association of Cape Verde Writers”.  There was a small gallery with a few paintings by local artists which were interesting.  The building had a patio in back which afforded us a view over the rest of the city, including a sizeable soccer stadium.  I’m sure we would have found more to see had we arrived on a week day.
 
Cape Verde is not ready for tourists.   On to Brazil!
 
 Crossing the Equator
 
We have three sea days between Cape Verde and Recife, Brazil.  The ship has provided a lot of typical shipboard entertainment for those who want to indulge – trivia games, gambling, “seminars” about things they sell (they push artwork, jewelry and spa treatments) and some pretty decent evening shows.  Probably the highlight of the daytime entertainment took place on the 15th, the day we crossed the equator.
 
The initiation of pollywogs, those who had never yet made the crossing, was limited to the crewmembers but they did a pretty good job of it.
 
The candidates were required to appear before “King Neptune” who judged their performance on the ship and then sentenced them to be slimed.  First, however, each had to kiss the royal fish.  There seemed to be a pretty high level of reluctance, but all complied.  Then the pollywogs were laid out on atable and thoroughly covered with what looked like paint, put was most likely colored cream of some sort.  The lucky ones were then thrown into the pool, while a few favored members got to sit alongside the pool throughout the remainder of the ceremony.  Finally all were declared “shellbacks” and could anticipate being on the other side of the festivities during the next crossing.
 
I still have memories of my initiation nearly 50 years ago as a Midshipman on the USS Abbot (DD 629).  I still have my certificate of the crossing, just in case I need to prove my shellback status to avoid another initiation.
 
We crossed the Equator on our granddaughter’s birthday.  Since we had WiFi access on the ship, we sent her a phone call by email.  We used some new software called GotVoice, which is a free service.  We recorded a message and sent it by email with her phone number.  When she received the voicemail message, she and her mother phoned us back.  We then had the pleasure of playing it back through our email.  We were sitting in the library at the time, and all the other grandparents around us got a kick out of hearing a little girl’s voice coming out of our computer.
 
Life on the Rotterdam is pretty plush – much like a luxury hotel.  We did have one major hiccough, in the form of a broken water pipe.  We awoke one morning for find wet carpet in the passageway outside our cabin, and just inside our door.  It took a while to get the attention of the right people (i.e. a plumber).  At first they just vacuumed up the water, which soon reappeared.  They moved us to another cabin, which was a deck lower and to our way of thinking a downgrade.  It was so noisy, between engineering noise and hull noise that we couldn’t sleep.  We let them know the next day that this wasn’t a satisfactory solution.  Fortunately they were able to make the plumbing repairs in a day and we moved back to our original cabin after one night.

We are almost dreading a return home to our bathroom scales.  The food has been fantastic.  We both feel that we must have gained at least 10 pounds.  Rotterdam has the traditional assigned seating for dinner, and we have been very fortunate in our tablemates.  One of the pleasures of travel is the opportunity to make new friends and this cruise is no exception.
 
To break the monotony of nothing but exceptional food, the ship has a few “theme” nights in the dining room – such as in the picture to the right.  In this case we were being served some of the chef’s special creations. 
 
The Rotterdam is nine years old, which probably explains some of their engineering difficulties.  They are constantly making repairs to the wiring and the plumbing.  All in all though, it is really a nice ship.  We have been quite pleased with Holland America.
 
Recife, Brazil
 
Today, November 16th, we arrived at Recife.  We took the shuttle bus into town to the Casa de Cultura, which is a center for local craft sales.  From there four of us rented a taxi for a tour of the city.  We were a little disappointed.  This is a city dedicated to commerce, not tourism.  We did see a few churches, and visited one that was impressive, the Convento Santo Antonio.  This is one of the oldest religious centers of the Franciscan order in Brazil, if not in South America. 
 
We visited both the Olinda area, which is the oldest part of the city, and Boa Viagem, which has their beach area.  The beach is really pretty small and not at all developed.  There are quite a few high rise buildings in the city though, which appear to be apartments.
 
 We also saw some interesting buildings, particularly in the older part of town.  A lot of the buildings seem to be in the process of being renovated.

We had intended to find a Cyber Café and do some internet updating, but didn’t see a single one anywhere in the city.  We stopped at a bank and drew out some Reais from the ATM.  The exchange rate is about 2.1 Reais to the dollar.  When we were last in Brazil the rate was better than 3 Reais to the dollar.  Thanks again Mr. Bush!
 
 Tomorrow we will be at sea, then we visit Salvador, Brazil.
 

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

After another sea day, we arrived at Salvador early Saturday morning.  The city is on two levels, with the port facilities on the lower level (obviously).  There are two cog trains and an elevator for pedestrians to reach the upper town.  The tariff was something like 10 centavos (a nickel US). None of the tourists had any small coins, and the operator had no change.  We had a one-real coin so we paid for a whole group of people to ride.  You can see the track going up the hill in the photo to the right.

As we walked toward the city center we saw several groups of young people on the steps of a church.  We thought they were possibly a choir getting ready for a performance.  When we asked one of the other spectators we learned that they were students from the Catholic school preparing for their graduation ceremonies.
 
Salvador is a very attractive city.  We didn’t wander far beyond the old city, with its cobblestones and colonial buildings.  The ethnicity of the population is largely African, quite different from the southern part of Brazil that we have visited in the past.
  
We located a cyber café and I settled down with a local beer to check our email and upload some pictures to the internet. 
  
Pam soon became bored watching me type, so she wandered off to get a manicure and pedicure. 
 
She hadn’t returned by the time I was finished surfing the ‘net, so I decided to try to find her.  I located the salon where I thought she had gone but didn’t see her inside.  I went in to ask for her, using my limited language skills, in this case a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese.  I received a response consisting of a dozen or so women all smiling and talking at the same time.  I followed their directions to the letter (yeah, right), but failed to locate her.  So, I did the next best thing and stopped for an ice cream cone.  Eventually she showed up, as I knew she would.
 
As we headed back toward the ship, we decided to descend to the lower level of the city near the craft market.  It is a very nice market where crafts and souvenirs are nicely displayed.  They also have a nice covered area where you can have a beer and a snack.  It was a good place to stop before walking back to the ship.
 

On to Rio!
 
Meanwhile, back on the Rotterdam….
 
We have one final day at sea before we arrive at Rio de Janeiro.  A few more words and pictures to help describe the wonderful time we have had on this trip.
 
We were really fortunate in our dinner companions.  Budd and Dawn are from New York, and Willi and Hildegard are from Germany and Florida (international snowbirds!). 
 
 
The Rotterdam is a large floating luxury hotel.  The food and service were outstanding, the facilities and furnishings comparable.  We usually ate in the formal dining room in the evenings.  The Lido, an informal, buffet restaurant was our choice for breakfast and lunch.  It was a real test of will power to get past the dessert section at lunch!
 
 
             
There were several lounges available, most of which were empty much of the time.  Our favorite in the evening was the Explorer’s lounge, where a piano/violin/cello trio entertained.
 
We also spent quite a bit of time in the library, where they had an excellent selection of books, including most of the newer best sellers.  The library also featured comfortable chairs and WiFi access (for a price).
 
As with all cruise ships, there was a sizeable casino with enough slot machines for anyone who wanted to get rid of their spare change.  We pretty well ignored that, given Pam is known as “the cooler”.  The casino should pay her just to stand around!
Not that there weren’t plenty of other ways to spend money.  The ship featured several luxury stores, with ample jewelry, clothing, liquor, paintings and of course, photos taken of the passengers at every opportunity.
 
          
 

No complaints about the ship though.  It was pretty well what we expected.
 
Rio de Janeiro
 
This was not our first trip to Rio, so we didn’t plan to visit the usual tourist sites again.  We had bid on SkyAuction for two nights in a hotel on Copacabana beach, obtaining a room in the Lancaster Othon hotel for just under $50 per night including breakfast.  We had stayed in this hotel when we visited Rio in 2004, so we knew what to expect.  Nothing fancy but a great location, right on the beach. 
 
One site we had not visited on our previous trip was the Sambódromo, which is where the parades are now held for Mardi gras.  The parade route is several blocks long, with large, permanent grandstands on one side.  The place was deserted, except for a couple of security guards and a small refreshment cart.  We talked to the security guards for a while (everyone seems to have a relative living in the US) and they let us wander around the site at will.
 
The Sambódromo is not located in the best of neighborhoods.  It is mostly an industrial area, with a few bars and small shops.  We had taken the subway to get there and the station is two or three blocks from the Sambódromo.  We weren’t at all uncomfortable, but would not recommend visiting the area at night.

Rio’s subways are colorful, clean and efficient.  We had traveled by Metro before, so we had no trouble getting around.  The routes are well marked.  Definitely the way to travel.
 
 We decided to visit once again one of our favorite attractions.  The Santa Rosa trolley station is located downtown next to the cathedral.  It is a vintage ride up into the Santa Rosa district, overlooking the favelas.  Not really slums, the favela areas are moderate to lower income residential areas.  Riding the old streetcar is a real treat.  It only costs a dollar or so to ride, or you can hang on to the side and ride for free.  Of course you risk the possibility of getting scraped off the side at one of the occasional tight spots.  It is about a half-hour round trip and one of the best of Rio’s attractions.  We were glad to be able to introduce our friends Budd and Dawn to this part of Rio.
  
We were only staying in Rio two nights, so we spent most of the time relaxing and wandering around the Copacabana area.  We spent an hour one day trying to find the shoe store where Pam had bought her favorite sandals.  They no longer carried that style, and all their shoes seemed to be quite a bit more expensive than we remembered.  At least we had found the store!
 
We found some big changes happening at Copacabana.  Rio is hosting the All American Games in 2007 and the beach is undergoing a major upgrade.  They are constructing several underground restroom/locker room facilities, about every hundred yards along the beach.  Above ground all of the refreshment kiosks are being upgraded, with nice patios.  It is a great place to sit under an umbrella, enjoy a caiparinha or a local beer, and watch the young Cariocas walking along the beach in their thong bikinis.  (Maybe this is why Pam wanted to go shopping for shoes.)  We really did enjoy people watching.  Beach soccer and beach volleyball have caught on big time in Rio.  We particularly enjoyed watching a version of volleyball in which they didn’t use their hands.  All the ball handling was done as in soccer, with feet, shoulders and heads only touching the ball.  We were really impressed with their ball handling skills.  It is no wonder they are such good soccer players.
 
The flights from Rio back to the USA all leave at night, generally around 10:30 p.m.  This gives you a lot of time to kill after checking out of your hotel.  No problem.  The hotel stores your luggage for you.  Then you can do some more sightseeing and have time for a nice dinner at a “por kilo” or churrascaria restaurant.  We asked what the taxi costs from Copacabana to the airport ($30 US and a one-hour ride) and learned that the Othon hotel chain provides a free shuttle bus.  You need to make your reservation a day in advance, but it sure makes your departure a lot easier.  The Othon hotels are a real value.
 
The trip home always seems longer.  We flew from Rio to Atlanta (a bit over nine hours), then had a couple of hour on the ground before our connection to San Diego departed.  That leg is about five hours more.  Fortunately, neither place was crowded and we had plenty of room to stretch out.  With three-across seating we always reserve an aisle and a window seat.  More than half of the time the center seat is left empty if the plane is not full.  (One of our little travel secrets.)   We were back home again by noon on Thanksgiving day, exhausted but happy to see our puppies.