18. The highs and lows of being a tourist.

I will let you, dear reader, decide which are the highs and which are the lows.

Our final evening on board Golden Princess turned out to be quite an exciting one. We met up for the last trivia quiz with Bonnie and Jeff, a couple from Los Angeles with whom we had teamed up on several occasions previously. Although we only equalled for first place in the quiz, a bottle of champers was given to the two teams who had tied, obviously a much better prize than the Princess torch or pen. So, after dinner we met up with them again and celebrated both our joint victory and the end of our voyage. They are a very sociable and fun couple and we got on very well with them.

Disembarkation in Rio was organised chaos as we had to wait in line for an hour to get through immigration. That being successfully achieved, we were delighted to hear that our actual disembarkation time was exactly as planned at 10am. Things were looking up...but not for long. As our coach set off for the hotel, we were advised that we would not be arriving there for another four hours! This caused uproar amongst the passengers as many, including ourselves, had private tours booked for the afternoon. Anyway, the driver relented and we eventually arrived at the hotel at 11.30...and in  plenty of time for our excursion ....or so we thought. I will return to this shortly.

The drive from ship to hotel was a bit of a sightseeing tour as we passed the Macarana stadium, home to the 2014 World Cup Final, a number of favelas perched precariously on the mountainsides, and the famous Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches with Sugar Loaf Mountain in the background.

Our hotel was positioned at the far end of Copacabana and is the tallest building along the beachfront. However, what it gained in location, it lost in efficiency as some two and a half hours after walking in the lobby, we had still not been checked in. Many of our fellow travellers were getting extremely angry, and rightly so. We had our tour to catch, so we requested that our bags be kept safely and we would just have to check in later.

Thankfully, the tour operator arrived on schedule and we set off to ascend to the top of Corcovado Mountain and to see what many consider to be one of the wonders of the modern world, the statue of Christ the Redeemer. As we made our way there, we could see the statue drifting in and out of the clouds and after the days problems, we were beginning to think that this was not going to be our lucky day. 

The cog train took a half hour to reach the summit. On the ascent we saw fleeting glimpses of the fabulous views of the City through the clouds, just enough to tantalise, but not enough to be able to fully appreciate the spectacular scenery. At the top of the mountain, the clouds were thickening by the minute and the 30 metre statue was barely visible. It was all a huge disappointment, but one cannot plan for the weather when making bookings weeks in advance. Every now and again the clouds would thin a little and a bit more of the monument would come into view. In fact, the weak halo of the sun behind it gave it an almost spiritual look, so perhaps all was not lost.

Upon returning to the hotel, we managed to get checked in, but it was now well after sunset and we had not had anything to eat since breakfast. We were also very tired, but nevertheless headed out onto  the Copacabana sidewalk to look for a restaurant. There were hundreds to choose from and so we joined what felt like half the population of Rio out for a very lively meal on Saturday night.

At least we have a great view from our hotel bedroom!