27/12 A fort, a marmoset and a visa photo

Tuesday 27 December            A fort, a marmoset and a visa photo

We made off to Copacabana, the scene of busy preparation for NYE. The fort was open this time and we wandered around their standing collection of artillery pieces and their temporary displays of Judaism (model of the Temple and a replica Ark of the Covenant??). 

Then into the thick concrete gun emplacement that houses two 300mm  and two 75mm guns. There was a maze of compartments underneath, including an amazing amount of storage space for ammunition and a mass of equipment for hauling it from the scattered storage chambers to the base of the turret and up to the guns themselves. The purpose was to reduce the risk of a direct hit on the guns detonating the magazines. There were thick steel rails hanging from the ceiling and the shells were rolled along those, held by clamps hanging on rollers below the rails. The final elevation to be loaded and fired was based on some screw machine that rotated them around and up to the guns.

The big guns

The smaller guns, is it just me or do they kind of look like a Dalek?

There were also the whole infrastructure of dormitories and officers’ quarters and a hospital etc. Up top we walked over the concrete surface, able to get up to the slowly rusting barrels and admire their field of fire across the whole bay and the approach to the harbour.

Up the hill we retraced our path to a restaurant we had noticed last time. It was very pleasant to sit outsides, watching the people walk past and the locals hoeing into plates heaped with steak or chicken and rice, black beans and chips and some spicy stuff that looked like couscous. We asked about the Gigantic pizza but the lady said a standard size would do. Assuming that might be a pretty miserly “personal pizza” we compromised on the Grande. Mistake! It was obvious when it arrived that we were not going to finish it. It reminded us of the incredible pizzas we had in Fiji that fed 6. This one had a radius from my knuckles to my elbow. No of course not, just testing to see if you were awake - that was the diameter.

The highlight came when the waitress/manager called out and then walked over to a big leafy tree growing on the pavement – a tiny marmoset (about 15cm with a long ringed tail) had come down and was perched about 6’ off the ground. She came back with a banana and balanced it in a fork in the tree. The little creature munched away on it for a while and then climbed back up, hands wrapped round the trunk rather like a koala. Apparently it is not uncommon in some parts of Rio.

So cute.  Waitress was quite excited when he appeared as if she hadn't seen him for a while.

Notice all the bars on the windows, I don't think we have seen any that have not been fortified.

The afternoon was taken up with obtaining batteries and a spare memory chip for the camera and having passport pictures taken. Australia Post can shove their $15 for 4 pictures – we got 9 for $6 here, and a free set for J, whose first set was hopelessly undersized. That all sounds pretty simple but actually necessitated numerous trips back and forth, finding shops, getting the right shapes and sizes and getting advice. All part of the process of travelling and getting things done abroad, particularly where there are language barriers.

View from the fort of Copacabana.  Sound shells being erected for NYE.

Copacabana with a favela rising above it on the hillside.  Christ the Redeemer is behind these but it is just too clouded today.

Right side of Copacabana with Sugarloaf in the distance