Rio: Downtown

On our next to last day in Rio, we decided to venture into downtown and more specifically into the art district of Rio; Santa Teresa! Our morning routine is the same, wake at 8:00, have a nice buffet breakfast and of to the races. We left the hotel at about 11:15 am or so... We took a taxi to Santa Teresa, but we really wanted to go to Selaron, a beautiful art work along steep stairs... You will say what a  simple idea, but I find it to be rather interesting and serves as a huge tourist attraction now. From Santa Teresa we took a "free" tramway, yes "free"!!! Some nice Brazilian guy who spoke a little bit of English asked the driver to let us off near the Selaron and so he did... We were both pleasantly surprised to see tourists from around the world taking pictures of this amazing place. A collection of tiles from around the world. We found tiles from San Francisco, Texas, and other places around the US. We spent nearly 2 hours at Selaron, at times sitting in the shade and watching tourists take pictures and look for tiles from their homeland. The day was very hot especially in the direct sun, so we took many breaks..

After Selaron, we moved on to a place called Lapa, two story arches with a tram rails on top!! Reminded me of the colosium in Rome... We then went into a very interesting and unusual church shaped like a pyramid on the outside and circular inside!! I never saw such a church in all my travels... After taking pictures inside the church we headed to "Centro" which is the center of Rio, no surprises there, just another boring big city! After getting money from an ATM machine of Bradesco bank, we took a coffee break and headed back to Santa Teresa again... Here we walked around narrow streets and stopped at gift shops! We then walked back to the Selaron. The walk was rather scary this time since we were the only people in this narrow street and that is usually a No-No in any big city, especially Rio!! I was the one who came up with the idea and I took all critism from my friend for putting us in danger! But we survived that and I was very happy to see crowds  again on the street! We headed back to our hotel at 6:30 pm! After a short break in our hotel we went for a long walk on Copa beach and even had dinner at one of the outdoor bars on the side walk... Here are some pictures from the day...

Wall full of colorful tiles from around the world and Brazil

The art work along steep steps

Colorful steep steps

Beautiful Grafity artwork 

A tramway on top Lapa, colosium like arches

A church !!!!!

Awesome art work on a wall in Selaron

Petrobras headquarters in Rio

Church ceiling and walls

Yet another huge piece of Grafity artwork