This dramatic statue of a dying soldier was in the median of the boulevard that borders Copacabana Beach and it was right in front of our hotel. It is the "18 do Forte" Statue symbolizing soldiers dying for the modernization of Brazil and the fight against corrupt politicians in 1922.
As we stood in front of our hotel we saw three bicyclists (tricyclists?) going down the bike lanes next to the wavy sidewalk each sporting a pretty big billboard.
Our hotel in Rio de Janeiro was on Copacabana Beach. When I say 'on the beach' I mean it was across the street and across this wide sidewalk, just like every other hotel that is 'on the beach'. The wavy design of Copacabana's sidewalk is known the world over. You may notice a narrow curbed two-lane 'road' between the walkway and the street: this is a bicycle and running path. Most of the South American cities we visited had them.
While we're on the subject of graffiti, I hope you can figure out why I'm sending you this photo.
I've mentioned before that South American cities seem to have a lot of graffiti, some of it very artistic. Here's one in Rio that is quite striking in just black and white.
Built as a Customs building in 1889, this green palace is on Fiscal Island in Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. It was designed by Adolfo del Vecchio and built under the direction of Dom Pedro II, the second and last emperor of Brazil. It was also the site of the last Imperial Ball. A military coup d'etat on November 15, 1889 overthrew the monarchy. The Emperor and his family went into exile in Portugal, and Brazil created a new federalist, republican government under the Brazilian Constitution of 1891.
In Rio we had lunch in a most fantastically decorated restaurant: the ceiling was covered with anything and everything! Then the women's restroom - the floor was sparkly loose gravel and the lavatories were half-filled with loose gravel. There was no explanation so I can't give any enlightenment on this score. It was just a little hard to walk on the floor and I wondered how they cleaned it all!
Marmosets are monkeys and this one is about the size of a small cat, sighted at the tram station on Sugar Loaf. It was climbing all over the food vendors' cases, but the vendors must be used to it since they didn't shoo it away. But it couldn't get at the food either. A little cutie!
The view from Sugar Loaf is spectacular and as you can see Rio is worth seeing from a height! This is beautiful Copacabana Beach; not only did we see it from here, we saw it up close because our hotel was right on the beach. More about that later.
To get to the top of Sugar Loaf, one has to take two trams, one from the street level and a second one from an intermediate station. Yesterday's photo was taken at the intermediate station. So is today's photo looking back down to the roundabout next to the big parking lot for the mountain tram.
We spent two days in Rio and on the first day we took the tram to the top of Sugar Loaf.
We came into Rio de Janeiro in the late evening, so this is a photo of our first sight, taken from the ship. The central feature is Sugar Loaf Mountain and the bright light on the peak to the left of Sugar Loaf is Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) on Corcovado Mountain.
We spent two days at sea between Montevideo and Rio de Janiero and on the second evening there was a beautiful sky. Many ship's passengers were out taking photos and I took a bunch. It was hard to choose which one to show you!
This is Montevideo's Torre de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Tower) or Torre Antel (Antel Tower). It is by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott. If it looks familiar, it's probably because you have seen photos of several buildings he designed in Dubai and other oil-rich Middle-Eastern countries..
La Diligencia, the Stagecoach Monument, by Jose Belloni was installed in 1952 in Montevideo. It commemorates the transportation struggles of the stagecoach era.
What do you suppose this brick building is? A restaurant, a residence, a museum? There's no sign on it though there is a space where a sign may appear later. It's sandwiched between two residential high rises. I took the photo from the bus and in twisting around to get it before the building was out of sight, it was way off level! If I cropped it, you wouldn't get the full flavor of its location, so I merely leveled it.
Torre Ejecutiva is the seat of the Uruguayan government; it's a blue glass-clad building on Plaza Independence, very near the massive residential building we saw yesterday. My research shows the building was under construction in 2008 and may have been completed in 2009 - pretty new!
This multi-story blue apartment building is on Montevideo's Plaza Independence. Note that the street apparently goes under it. I hope those pillars are sturdy!
I had to take this picture from the bus, but I want you to see the long curving beachfront of Montevideo. This is just a portion; it could be as long as 3 miles, all lined with hotels and apartment buildings. Just beautiful!
After Buenos Aires we sailed to Montevideo, Uruguay, and here are the buses waiting for our ship to dock. Note the size of the crane in the left of the photo; the little red things at the bottom of the crane are people.
On our second day in Buenos Aires we took a drive to a ranch where we saw gaucho demonstrations and had a typical gaucho lunch - lots of meat and few vegetables. And there I took this sour-looking creature's portrait. No doubt he was a vegetarian and was still hungry after lunch!
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