Escadaria Selarón and Bonde de Santa Teresa

We are staying in Rio in an apartment that we found on airbnb on Rua Costa Bastos which is right inbetween the old neighborhoods of Santa Teresa that cover the mountainside, Centro which is the downtown finance districs and finally Lapa which is known for its many clubs.

One day we decided to take a walk from Lapa up to Santa Teresa, and what better way to do this than by the beautiful stairs of Escadaria Selarón. This is a staircase that has been created by local artist Jorge Selarón who began repairing the stairs with colorful tiles and eventually covered it all in tiles from all over the world.

This place of course attracts hoards of tourists and the ubiquitous vendors selling mixed junk to the tourists. Even so it is rather enjoyable to walk up the beautiful stairs and take in the view.

Some of the more political pictures in the work reminds me of street art, which the whole staircase more or less can be said to be.

When we reached the top of the stairs we took a minute to rest before continuing on upwards to find a place where the Bonde stops. Being both clever and lazy we took a shortcut down a small alley staircase and found a sign that said the tram would stop there.

Confirming our cleverness the tram did stop there to pick up passengers, but the fact that it is more or less only a tourist attraction makes sure it is always very tightly packed. It stopped and let us know that there is one seat left, we both didnt want to part and leave the other one at the stop so we passed on that offer. Hmm, not so clever after all. We now had to walk all the way up the tracks to catch the next tram.

It was quite far, but we did catch the one after the next! Below is a view from the bridge over Lapa which the tram passes, the big pyramid is actually Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião.