Santa Teresa

"James, we need to do something at least a little bit cultural..." were the words that I didn't think I'd be saying.  But we've got to the point of; there's only so much sitting on the beach doing absolutely nothing before the novelty begins to look like it's about to even think about wearing thin.

So! Santa Teresa and Lapa we go!!  Santa Teresa is an old Bohemian town in the hills of Rio; once famed for housing the mega rich!! They built gigantic mansions within the hillside; however with the struggling money problems that Brazil faced, they moved out to cheaper regions.  (History lesson over...).  There are now loads of empty mansions scattered along the hillside; several transformed into galleries or museums; but most remain abandoned.

We decided to be a bit more pro-active and rather than taking a taxi absolutely everywhere; we opted for the metro.  Which was a joy as soon as we got there; trying to work out firstly where to get the ticket from and secondly how to get through the barriers (and no, this was not due to size restrictions).  Getting off the train at what we thought was the right stop, turned out not to be; however we were in the middle of the old part of Lapa; which houses the large Aztec style Catedral de Sao Sebastian (Cathedral of Saint Sebastian; which coincidently, was his Patron Saints day today and a public holiday; meaning the majority of Rio was closed...).

After a long stroll around, we decided the best way to find Santa Teresa was by jumping into a trusted taxi; whose suicidal driver drove us right up to the top, skidding round bends and really not paying attention too much.  After trying to navigate around, getting temporarily lost then walking in a large circle back to the start; it was time for a beer!!
There's a lot of street art of large murals painted around the town; most of them are graffiti styled, however there were a few little naked treats along the way. 
We managed to communicate with a local who told us a good walk down the hillside and into Lapa where we found the Escadaria Selaron; a large set of steps which have been completely covered in tiles.  Started about 25 years ago by a Chilean guy who wanted to make the steps outside his house look a big better.

Not a bad start to the cultural side of Rio; would have been better if we knew where we were going; but also completed the first main bit of exercise for the past 2 weeks...