First, a metro bus to the subway and then, the famous Santa Teresa bondinho. Santa Teresa is a lot like San Francisco, in my opinion. It's very young, artsy, and set on very steep hills. The bonde (trolley cars) used to run all over Rio, but now the only one still functioning is in Santa Teresa.
The kids would hang off the sides (free ride if you don't require a seat) and the monkeys would watch from above.
Ian again got a lizard shot, since this was his third country, he was getting pretty good at the lizard shot by now.
Santa Teresa is one of the more shady parts of Rio, as it is surrounded by 7 of the poorest favelas in Brazil.
The houses often line their outer courtyards with broken glass on the top to keep out robbers.
One Australian tourist on our bondinho actually had his wallet stolen -- complete with 600 dollars inside. Yikes.We got off and took a small walk around, catching some hearty feijoada, a traditional Brazilian bean and meat stew.
We caught the bonde back downhill (no seats left, so local hanging for us this time!)
We passed some interesting architecture -- a local boy told us the cone-shaped building was a large church.
We transfered by taxi to the Cosme Velho station to take the tram up to Cristo Redentor. The train ride us took us straight through the jungle.
To...Christ the Redeemer. (sadly, under renovation currently)
Still, you can tell why it was named one of the new 7 wonders of the world.
The views of Rio from above were also quite nice -- here's Ipanema, Leblon, and the lake that we biked around to get to the gardens yesterday.
Here's Sugar Loaf mountain in the distance.
And, of course, the classic spread-eagle tourist shot:
Ian reluctantly allowed me to drag him into doing it with me:
So ends another day...hang gliding tomorrow!
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