We departed Rio de Janeiro’s Pier Maua aboard the Star Princess under fairly bright skies pretty much on time on Thursday afternoon (as I’m writing this, it is currently Friday night just after 10:00 P.M., and I intend to post this Saturday morning if we can find an internet café in Salvador). From there we took the scenic route, first passing Guanabara Bay (remember the location of that churrascaria, Porcão, in the Flamengo district of Rio?) before swinging past Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), and finally saying our goodbyes to the beautiful beach and hotels of the Copacabana district.
Unfortunately, the weather did not hold beyond Guanabara Bay. A low cloud deck obscured much of Rio’s famed mountainous background, and the normally bright sand and colorful buildings of Copacabana suffered from the diffused, hazy lighting and slightly bluish tinting caused by the overcast despite my best attempts at manually controlling white balance. While I usually dislike photographing under a harsh, bright, midday sun, these photos definitely would have benefitted from such conditions. Nevertheless, a quick ten minutes of minimal post-processing managed to bring them up to presentable standards. Increasing contrast and saturation levels helped counter the hazy conditions, and I pretty much left the white balance untouched from the original in-camera settings.
If all goes well and weather permits, expect pictures of Salvador, Brazil, upon reaching Fortaleza on Tuesday, March 15, unless I can get them posted before leaving Salvador in the afternoon. Until then, please enjoy this photographic record of our Rio departure by sea:
Decisions — Murder in Paradise
The Globe — Murder in Luxury
R. Doug Wicker — Author 