March 28, 2025

RIO DE JANEIRO - Day 5 - CARNIVAL CHAMPION'S PARADE

Apologies loyal readers - I am way behind again! Had some computer glitches and then an excursion to the Amazon (post coming) and then things just got busy. I never have enough hours in the days to do everything I want! Hopefully will be current shortly.

 

Above is partial gang of residents that took part in celebrating the end of Carnival in Rio, going to the Parade of Champions at the Sambadrome (holds 90,000 people in stands). From L to R - Scott, Gary, Delia, ?,Christy, Me and Lori. Almost everyone in the crowd dresses up in some fashion - it's the hugest party I have ever been too, and it doesn't even get started till 10 Pm at night!! Twelve Samba schools compete all week and this parade celebrates the top 6 schools. Each school (which has to have a minimum of 3,500 members)gets to perform for about an hour with full fireworks at the start of each performance and a break of about 20 to 40 minutes in between, to clean up and clear the street, for the next performance. The 6th best school starts their performance at 10 p.m. and the winners are supposed to be on by 3 a.m. However they started late, the breaks in between schools were much longer, and therefore the best teams #1 BEIJA FLOR & #2 GRANDE RIO performed in the daylight hours, finishing at roughly 8 a.m!! Only Callie (Scott's friend who is visiting) and Gary and myself made it all the way through! Shown below some more or our crowd Sheri, Bob & Sarah - our crazy section and the 3 of us, who stayed to the very end! We then had to get through the crowds and make it back to the ship - had breakfast and then the ship sailed away from port, and we slept all afternoon!

Below are some highlights of performers - I have tons of photo's & video's will add more once I get caught up.

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ENTERING HONG KONG HARBOR

By Pat Patrick • September 1, 2026
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 31, 2026
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck! 

HAI VAN PASS to HUE, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 30, 2026
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.