Russian sailing ship Nadezhda becomes Rio de Janeiro's main sight for a few days

The Russian sailing vessel Nadezhda has become the main sight of Rio de Janeiro for a few days.

The training ship on which cadets of the Vladivostok Admiral Nevelskoi Maritime State University are making a round-the-world voyage came to Rio on Monday, November 10. Free access to the Nadezhda was open for three days, and about 1,000 people have already visited the vessel. The visitors came in organized groups and in families. Up to five groups of schoolchildren daily visited the Nadezhda.

The cadets and teachers from the Nadezhda visited the maritime faculty of Federal University in Rio de Janeiro where they familiarized themselves with the conditions of their Brazilian counterparts' training.

Daily excursions around Rio de Janeiro are organized for the cadets, teachers and the Russian ship's crewmen. On Thursday they participated in a jeep tour of the Tijuca national forest park.

Two TV programs of the Band and TVE channels were filmed aboard the sailing vessel.

The Nadezhda will leave Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, November 15, accompanied by a Sail Racing Federation regatta. The sailing ship will head for the Falkland Islands. The return to its port of registry Vladivostok (the Maritime Territory, the Far Eastern federal district) is scheduled for March 2004.