Our last day in Rio

On our last day in Rio we took the tram up to the old town of Santa Teresa, which is perched on a hill up above the neighbourhood of Lapa. Once at the top we slowly walked down the hill, winding our way through the old streets and admiring the buildings. The houses were beautiful and decaying, covered in vines and vegetation, graying round the edges but the stonework and original bright colours still just visible beneath. Many had beautiful pillars and balconys, and tiling and mosaics on little parts of the stone.

After walking in the hottest part of the day, and as we began to melt, we set off to see the famous tiled steps in Lapa done by a Chilean artist from tiles all over the world. These are the steps from the music videos such as Snoop Dog and Pharrell 'Beautiful'. We made sure to take some gangsta pictures! THere was also a little boy of around 6 with what I think/hope was a fake gun pretending to shoot us the whole time we were on the steps- hmmmm.

In the evening we walked over to Ipanema to see more of the pre-carnival celebrations and samba practises. Each districts samba school came out and played in their streets and parks. There were people dancing and drinking and singing everywhere, and they all seemed to be singing along to the same songs, I just wish I had known the words so I could join in! It is such an energy and a bus in the air and its like the street is a nightclub and everyone is at the same party.