Next we headed for Santa Teresa, an old region of Rio perched on a hillside. You can take a tram up here, as people have done for over 100 years over the Lapa viaduct (a former aqueduct). In fact we waited what felt like 100 years for a tram, which eventually filled up and set off very slowly with people hanging off the sides. Should have stuck to the bus. Anyway, Santa Teresa is a real ramble, with some pretty if tired houses, and a few shops and bars but nothing exceptional. We walked back to the viaduct (overtaking a tram, which had got stuck behind another tram that was performing maintenance on the overhead cables - honestly, stick to the buses up here!), calling in at the Chácara do Céu Museum - this is basically someone's house and art collection, not really worth going out of your way for, although on the way out you can walk through and climb up a weird skeletal house that looks like one of MC Escher's staircase pictures - fortunately going up the stairs really does lead you up to some decent views.
Finally, back near the viaduct, we eventually managed to find the Selarón Staircase. Finding anything is a bit of a mission, unless you're in a flat part of Rio, because of the topography - you really need a 3D map to get a sense of which bits are on hillsides. Worth the effort though. This is a set of stone steps linking Lapa and Santa Teresa, and the Chilean artist Jorge Selarón has covered every one of the risers in tiles, some from around the world and some he has painted. Having finished the steps, he's liberally tiled the pavements and walls at the bottom too. Really worth a visit, and I'd recommend walking up it rather than down (I wouldn't worry about missing out on the tram!).
Had a nice dinner at the bar where the song The Girl from Ipanema was allegedly written - and they are keen to let you know this, with reproductions of the original hand-written lyrics painted on the wall - where we solved the problem of having to order meals for two by getting grilled chicken with palmitos. I ate the lion's share (in the modern usage) of the chicken*; Lilly ate the lion's share (in the original usage**) of the palmitos! We then popped into an Irish bar*** to drink Brazilian beer and watch South American football, with a good assortment of locals turning out to support Rio's Flamengo against Corinthians in the Copa Libertadores****, where a few Brazilian stars were milking their former fame. We saw the unusual sight of Roberto Carlos hitting the target from a free kick, Ronaldo scoring with a thumping header despite - or perhaps because - his feet didn't have to leave the ground, and Adriano doing... well, nothing. Great game, really end-to-end. We felt obliged to support Flamengo and were disappointed to see them 2-1 down, then a bit surprised to see Corinthians' keeper go up for a corner and then the local fans cebrate defeat, at which point we realised that this was the second leg, unmentioned by any on-screen caption - Flamengo went through on away goals despite losing on the night.
* Sadly, grilled chicken is not as good in Brazil as in Argentina. Does anyone know where I should look in Rio FerdiNandos?
** Think about it - if you're 'sharing' with a lion, how much are you going to get? Even if I liked palmitos, 'sharing' them with Lilly would probably end up the same way - her current favourite food.
*** Called The Irish Bar. We walked past the previous night when it was very sleepy and 4 of its 6 customers were playing chess. They like their Irish bars around here - Shenanigans, in the same square, had live music and a good atmosphere.
**** South America's version of the Champions League.
On Thursday we went on a favela tour. I might leave this to Lilly to describe in more detail, since she found it interesting whereas I'm a hard-nosed economist with no interest in people... In brief, favelas are areas of poor housing that spring up in the gaps and on the edges of Brazilian cities. There are many of them in Rio, unusually close to the centre and generally perched on hillsides (so some of them have great views). The first one we went to had 85,000 inhabitants! They can be pretty dangerous places, largely because of drug dealers fighting with each other or the police; on the other hand, the drug dealers keep a lid on other crime as much as possible. I guess the main thing I took from this is that the favelas aren't nearly as bad as you might imagine - all of them have electrivity and water (most of the time, at least), they have shops and banks, they take Mastercard, there used to be a McDonald's for a while and local chain Bob's Burgers is still there, most people have jobs... We've seen worse poverty and living conditions in south-east Asia and I bet you'd see far worse in Africa - I guess the point here is the contrast with the rest of Rio, but there's nothing particularly shocking or unique here. So in effect we just got to walk round round a fairly shabby and poor town, which isn't my idea of an interesting afternoon. The tour does feel perfectly safe, though, as you'd hope.
Dinner was a nice Chinese - one of the few cuisines where we're happy to share the same dish - looking out on Copacabana by the touristy night market.
On Friday we took a day trip to Búzios, north up the coast, a small fishing village until 1965 when Bridget Bardot holidayed here, and now a fairly swanky destination with beaches, island and boutiquey shops. We set off early on a misty morning (out of Rio along the 14km long bridge to Niteroi on the other side of the bay - we couldn't see the far end of the bridge for mist), but the sun was blazing by the time we arrived. After a wander around town we went out on a cruise around the bay, pausing periodically to leap off the side for a swim. Very nice, and a good break from the city.
We made it back in plenty of time to hit the busy streets of Lapa, which heave with people on a Friday evening. A chap from our hostel took us up there - for some reason the best place to meet his friends was a petrol station, so we spent a little while outside there having a drink before heading in for a bit of live Brazilian music. There are lots of bars, and street stalls sell food and drink, while music blasts out of every venue. It has the kind of energy I associate with Brazil. Good fun.
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