Prolog
In February 2011 we sailed with Royal Caribbean’s.
I had an appointment with the “Future Cruises Director”: The topic was: Brazil.
I had an appointment with the “Future Cruises Director”: The topic was: Brazil.
I found out that in a year, a RCCL’s ship will cruise through some of Brazil’s ports and the trip will end in Rio de Janeiro in time for the Rio’s Carnival.
In the following months I worked with “Escaped to Latin America”, which we had used in the past (Peru, Ecuador) and together we came up with a wonderful itinerary: 17 days (including the cruise) in Brazil.
In June 2011 I received a letter from RCCL, which informed me that the cruise had been cancelled. It turned out that the Brazilian’s authorities had raised the fees for the ship to dock in Rio’s port during the Carnival and RCCL had rejected their new hike in fees and simply cancelled the cruise.
I was devastated, as I already booked the trip with the travel agency, paid them a deposit, which they had used to make deposits in all the hotels, etc., and I already had purchased airline tickets to and from Brazil.
After the initial shock I started to look for an optional cruise and luckily found one that leaves Brazil to Uruguay at almost the same dates. The major difference was that the new cruise would start it sailing in Sao Paulo (and not Rio) and return to San Paulo.
I contacted the travel agent and changed the whole itinerary to accommodate the new schedule and around August 2011 we were all set and started to count the days…
Day 1: February 3rd, 2012
A “Super Shuttle” van showed up at our residence to pick us up to LAX Airport. The van was 45 minutes late and to our dismay had stopped in a hotel to pick up some other passengers. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn in La Mirada, we found out that they were not ready and we will have to wait an additional 30 minutes for them. I calculated the time: If we were to wait for them, we will arrive one hour before our scheduled departure, which might not be enough for an international flight.
I called Super Shuttle’s headquarters and spoke to the dispatcher, who understood my dilemma and directed the driver not to wait for the passengers at the hotel but take us directly to the airport.
Fighting the traffic on the 405 freeway, our driver managed to get us there with enough time to catch the flight.
Day 2: February 4th, 2012
After twelve and a half hours we arrived at Rio de Janeiro/Galeao–Antonio Jobim International Airport popularly known by its original name Galeao International Airport.
After going through custom and immigration we picked our luggage and found our awaiting guide for the next couple of weeks: Rodrigo.
On our way to the hotel we found out that Rodrigo had spent two years in Israel (in my hometown Eilat of all places) and could carry a conversation in Hebrew as well as English and Portuguese.
We drove south and arrived to the Astoria Palace, our hotel for the next 5 nights. The hotel is located in front of the most famous beach in Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana beach and situated right in the center of the most famous beach in the world, and next to the famous Copacabana Palace. Our room, on the fourth floor, faced the beach and was very comfortable. The views from our window were magnificent.
We took a much needed shower and dressed like the locals: Shorts and T-Shirts as we walked down to the beach.
The weather was perfect and we breathed in the fresh air. We found hundreds of people, most of them tourists like us, walking up and down the wide sidewalks, sun bathing on the white sands and swim around. The views around were breathtaking and it started to settle in our minds: we are here, in the famous beach, the one we used to see in the movies, read about it and hear about it from so many travelers.
The weather was perfect and we breathed in the fresh air. We found hundreds of people, most of them tourists like us, walking up and down the wide sidewalks, sun bathing on the white sands and swim around. The views around were breathtaking and it started to settle in our minds: we are here, in the famous beach, the one we used to see in the movies, read about it and hear about it from so many travelers.
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