Wonderful Rio!

Rio is everything they say it is! It's dirty, it's crowded, but it's beautiful, and full of excitement. The only thing we missed was the sunshine!
We were woken at 6am by the ship reversing its motors as it berthed. There was the centre of Rio, right in front of us, and, shining whitely in the only shaft of sunshine we saw all day, above all was the Christ the Redeemer statue, accented by swirling clouds.
We went on a tour which took us to the harbour below the Sugarloaf Mountain, to Ipanema and to Copacabana, to the wonderful modern conical cathedral, and, because our guide was an architectural nut, past dozens of wonderful buildings. It's a week to Carnaval, but we went to the Sandromo to watch the set-up ... we saw SO much.
When everyone else went back to the ship, we got in a cab for a crazy ride through the slum areas to Botafogo, looking for somewhere to replace John's sandals - he's worn out one pair already!! We spent a couple of hours in a mall, feeling proud as we navigated our way with limited Portugese, then, good Brazilian sandals in hand, we caught a local bus - about $2 Australian for a 10km ride.
This was the best day we've had in Brazil - despite the rain, Rio is everything they say ... we recommend it!