RIO DE JANEIRO
Until now the weather has been perfect, so it was hard to complain when it was cloudy and raining when we sailed into Rio. Our driver told us it was 40 degrees Celsius two days earlier, so we were lucky to have a comfortable day. In the morning, we drove thru town, past the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas to the Sterns headquarters were we were able to watch them cut and create beautiful jewelry. From diamonds to emeralds and many other precious stones, it was fascinating to view “Bowls” of diamonds and other jewels. Even better, was when Gary surprised me by purchasing a necklace with a rainbow of jewels including blue topaz, peridot, citrine, amethyst and garnet. What a wonderful Valentine’s Day/ Birthday surprise. It makes the perfect addition to the collection of jewelry I get when we travel.

We then returned to the ship for an afternoon tour that included many other sites and taking the train up Corcovado Hill to the Christ the Redeemer Statue (an icon to Rio). The clouds covered us on the ride up the mountain, but cleared enough to see the entire area while on top. Can’t wait to share the pics with you.

We also visited the famous Copacabana & Ipanema beaches. Both had some unbelievable sand sculptures on display. On the way back to the ship we went by a Carnaval Block Party and got just a hint of how crazy this city will be a week from now. If you can imagine Halloween, New Years & 4th of July all thrown together into one celebration, it still won’t compare to Carnaval. I did get some great pics of some of the costumes, so hopefully when we get to Buenos Aires I will be able to find an internet café and get my photo’s transferred for you to view.

We are up to one mile on our sea day walks and hope to be walking three by the time we return to the US. Every night we are dancing to wonderful bands. Tonight is another Formal Night.

We found from the afternoon group tour that we much prefer going out on our own with our friends Steve and Tony, so we are looking forward to doing just that in Buena Aires and Montevideo.