22.1.11 Rio and dresses 16,17,18

22.1.11 Rio de Janeiro,  we will rock you, and  Dresses 16, 17 and 18.

Our time in Rio started with an evening of Queen.  Great show and so dress 16 is of one of the singers in her ‘we will rock’ you costume. Queen are one of our favourites, wonderful evening and worth staying up for despite the alarm going before six the following morning so we could be on deck to see the approach to Rio.

Rio de Janeiro so named as in 1502 when the Portuguese navigators entered the large bay whist exploring they assumed it was the mouth of a river, they settled in the area 60 years later and the first crops were sugar cane. They then brought over African slaves and then in the early 1700s gold and diamonds were discovered, Rio became the capital of Brazil in 1763.  However by the end of that century it lost much of its prosperity as other countries were also competing for the sugar trade. In the early 19^th century Coffee became a major export. 

Here’s something which I didn’t know until we came here -in 1807 the Portuguese royal family and entourage 1500 in total fled from Napoleon and set up the capital of Portugal in Rio they stayed until 1821. One son Dom Pedro 1 remained and eventually crowned himself emperor of Brazil.  There was an emperor until 1889.

There are over 5 million people, and most of them seemed to be on the beaches during yesterday, the weather was 30/32 by 9.00 in the morning.  The views were incredible and crystal clear, giving us far reaching views of the granite outcrops, bays, beaches and high rise buildings.

The two iconic images of Rio are Sugar Loaf Mountain and Corcovado with its statue of Christ the redeemer. Everyone knows Copacabana. The cathedral; which looks very similar to the one in Liverpool: was most impressive and the stained glass and cool interior very moving.

  We had heard terrible tales of muggings, poverty and general unsafe but for us we found none of these things.  Of course they exist but during our short stay we saw beautiful buildings and many restored colonial areas, fabulous views and beaches, not one beggar, and lots of people with very little on enjoying the beaches, the weather and the weekend. Dress 17 is of a lady lying on her tummy in the water reading her book with one of the smallest thongs; she happily smiled and was keeping cool as the waves broke over her.

55% of the population of Brazil is under 25 years, and they rejoice in babies and female curves, we decided on the dolls which are everywhere that show their view of the female form. Dress number 18 therefore is the row of mulatto dolls.

We sailed away about midnight and watched the light from Corcovado until it finally disappeared.