As we sailed in, we took this photo of Olinda's hill, but it provides only a small hint of the richness of 
this World Heritage Site. We walked to a convenient road going toward Olinda and caught a taxi. 

As we continued to climb, we passed a convent and then this empty lot with ruins and a gorgeous view.

Atop the first hill, the view from the monastery is even better and in fact we could see our ship at the dock down below. (It's in the center of the photo this side of the two tallest buildings.)

We started at the tourist information center and obtained a map and a suggested walking route, which was supposed to take about 2 hours--starting with a climb.

<< On the climb up, these silk cloths were displayed for sale. 

This view over the convent is to the left of the one above. Notice the lighter and greener water above the reef. We particularly liked the cloud formation.

The monastery was not a pretty building, but it
 did offer these interesting roof lines. 

We walked along a ridge from the monastery to this church
with a huge plaza being used as a market, mostly for laces and fancy costumes, which we presumed were for Carnival.

A dozen kids dressed in sequins and sneakers had apparently been practicing for the big party. 
This girl posed for us with little prompting. >>

We continued along the ridge and loved this display of Carnival masks...

and this inviting Olinda Art and Grill. Then we started to descend.

As we returned to the bottom of the hill, we found this very fast checker match in the shade next to a mangrove-lined river. The man moving his piece lost the game and a new challenger took on the winner. 

We flagged down a taxi to go straight to jail--the one that's a market where we started our private tour. We caught a shuttle bus back to the ship and called it a day.

Two days at sea and then on to Rio de Janeiro--River of January.  We'll be there for two days...

~ ~ ~

We sailed into Rio first thing in the morning, so we got up early and watched a beautiful sunrise. The ship's travel guide, Barbara, was to narrate as we pulled into the harbor to let us know what we were seeing. But as we got closer, the fog became so thick that the ship started blowing its fog horn.

And behind Sugarloaf, the even higher peak with the enormous Christ, the Redemer statue that can be seen from many parts of the city. The 3rd hill sports a dozen tall towers for antenae.

A few oil platforms within the overall harbor mar the view not far from the city's main waterfront. We also saw oil exploration ships and figured that oil is king and tourists' sensibilities and the views from the city are not as important.

  Then... just as quickly, it lifted and we could easily see Sugarloaf, the harbor's signature rock formation.

High rises crowd the waterfront and flat areas, while the favelas, slums housing the poorer people of the city, rise up into the hills in close proximity to the wealthy and business areas.

Passengers lean on the port rail to take in the city while Barbara explained what we were seeing. We thought this green church out on a jetty was cool, but when we went to visit it later that afternoon, we learned that it's a castle. More on that later: our first item on our must-see list was the Botanical Garden on the other side of town.

We'd read that the Uruguaina station was on Mister Two Steps Road--the sign indicates that this name was suggested by Padre Inacio Fernandes Fortes in 1732. 

Dean's research on the city indicated that the metro was easy to navigate and was reliable. So we found a "Change House" to buy some reals, the local money, so we could more easily get around and then we looked for the nearest metro station, which was a few blocks from the port.

We paid for the ride on the Metro and a transfer to a bus to the gardens. Standing room only on the train. We walked two blocks to get to the garden. One the way we saw this inviting bronze street sculpture. I sat at this man's desk to discuss business.

This highly graffittied wall was across from the gardens' main gate.

This Venus flytrap was part of the insectivorous plant collection. 

The bust of Fr. Leandri Sacramento resides in an arched shelter totally covered with creeping fig and as you can see we are now behind the Christ the Redemer statue. The tall rock hills are in view almost everywhere you go.

     
Water was pumped throughout the gardens and it was used to create a number of beautiful waterfalls. The cactus garden contrasts with the lushness of the rest of the property.

   
We also watched the birds. The high-stepping bird on top left looks like a relative of the galanules that we've seen in south Florida. The sitting bird is some type of Guinea fowl, while the yellow bird below left looked like a flycatcher, but we saw it skim the pond for minnows, but maybe they were insect larvae. The black and white birds moved fast, but we have no idea what they might be related to.

But the fastest movers were the little monkeys--at first we thought they were squirrels, but their long ringed tails gave them away as monkeys. Very cute, but they are easier to see than to photograph.