Rio! Rio! Rio! What to say about such a spectacular place…? I don't think I have ever seen such a superb location for a city. Wonderful views in every direction, incredible rock faces rising from the sea and all so green…. White beaches. Not just Copacabana and Ipanema, the famous ones, but lots of others, and islands off shore….a 14km bridge across the bay. Just a superb place. Add to that the famous Brazilian joie de vivre and it's a cracker of a city.

The buildings aren't much to be fair. Too many concrete tower blocks crammed in all along the beaches and downtown areas. And then there's the favelas clinging to the hills and making the place look untidy. But…. Even our best man-made efforts can't spoil the natural wonders of this fabulous place.

With so much to see, we booked a full day tour with P&O to guarantee we would see Corcovada Hill and the statue of Christ the Redeemer and also Sugarloaf Mountain. I really hate big tour groups for all sorts of reasons, my lack of patience being the main one, but we were afraid with so much to see and the famously awful Rio traffic that if we went private and got stuck, we could miss the ship. They only wait for their own tours. So, teeth gritted…

A hot day but with cloud and some haze which was a blessing in one way because it made travelling and sightseeing less gruelling. But a bit sad from a photography viewpoint because the bright colours of the sea and sky weren't there which makes the pictures a bit washed out. I can only imagine how jaw-droppingly stunning the place must be on a bright clear day. Next time perhaps.

First to Corcovada and the Statue. You take a funicular railway up to nearly the top of the hill. It takes about 25 minutes winding up through pretty dense jungle. Then at the top there is a lift and then escalators to reach the statue. It's the height of a three storey building and looks east with the hands pointing north and south. Quite a feat as it was assembled and built up there. It must have been a terrible task to get everything up. The statue is amazing but the real stars are the views in all directions. Fantastic despite the haze - at least we were not in clouds as is often the case. We could see out to the islands, Sugarloaf Mountain, our ship, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. The massive football stadium.

It was very crowded at the top. Lots of people with cameras and lots of them with those durned sticks with the cameras on the end. They are a blight. For heaven sakes find a friend… find a stranger if you have no friends to take your picture rather than nearly take my eye out with your damned stick! LOL

Then we went to a traditional Brazilian churrasco restaurant for lunch. Oh-my-god. An enormous buffet with everything from sushi to salads, cold meats, cheese, a whole salmon etc, hot dishes. Then they come around with a parade of meats on huge skewers or swords. Just everything… different steaks, pork, pork ribs, lamb, chicken, fish. It goes on until you beg for mercy. Luckily Bob and I have been to one before so we knew not to eat much at all of the buffet and just have some lovely selected meat. It was very good. Tender, tasty and succulent.

After lunch we were off to Sugarloaf Mountain. It is well named rising sheer from the base and shaped like an old fashioned sugar loaf. Two cable cars to the top - fantastic views of course, even better from the top. Nice jungle walk up there too. Again, the star is the view though.

Finally we drove along the stretches of Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. By now it was about 4pm and they were getting quite crowded with people coming from work. Copacabana in particular is a huge beach. It must be over 2 miles long. Lots of activities and sports going on plus the most amazing sandcastle art.

We got back to the ship about 5pm and went to use the free dockside internet. It was woeful in our "shed" so we wandered outside and picked up the signal from the next berth which was empty. Brilliant until there was an ominous crash of thunder and then the rain started….. I had just finished uploading some pictures to the blog and had to run. That meant a change of plans because we were planning to go back to Copacabana for the evening as we don't sail till midnight.

Instead, we went to the show on-board which was a Brazilian Carnival dance and music troop giving their best as part of the warm up to Carnival which is in a couple of weeks. The costumes were spectacular and wowee the girls and boy dancers were pretty hot! I made the mistake of sitting in the front row with my camera and of course that was daft because I got pulled up to dance with them ALL ON MY OWN!!!! Yikee. Nightmare! But you just have to go with it don't you or you look even more foolish. I hadn't even changed from the day out, we'd run right there from the dock…. Still had my old summer shift on…. Luckily by the time Bob got to my camera and focussed, it was all over LOL

At the end they grabbed a whole lot of us to join them in a big Carnivalesque group dance on stage which I have to say was a huge amount of fun. Bob got some pix of this. I had to giggle at one point. Two of the male dancers were pretty gorgeous and at one point I caught two elderly ladies jigging along behind them conga style and it reminded me of that part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney where in a reversal of the old story, the women are lustfully chasing the pirates round the well…. I guess you have to be a bit of a WDW freak to get that reference but trust me the similarity was marked LOL

And so to bed….. pretty tired but very happy. Brilliant place. Thoroughly recommended and I hope we will be back on day.