Sunset over Ipanema

Last act of the tourist trail for today - sunset from Arpoador, the point between Ipanema and Copacabana, looking towards the Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers) and Pedra da Gavea peaks. The sun put on his usual serene show for many hundreds of tourists (and the fishermen on the point) and was applauded, as usual, as he sank below the waves.

Before that, took our visiting friend to the Christ the Redeemer statue, on the Corcovado peak. While waiting for our train, we visited the Naîf Art Museum near the station. We also had a tasty snack in the Museum café - all organic and prepared on site. Very impressed by the kindly lady in charge, who lends toys to visiting children.

Then chugged up through the forest and took the lazy way from the station to the top - the lift, which saves one 250 steps. Even so, the heat was soon too much for my friend, so to avoid a collapse, we headed for another café, sat in the shade and imbibed some acerola juice - delicious.

Back to queue for the next train down, and from there, a taxi to the Escadaria Selaron - another flight of 250 steps in the Lapa district, former (present?) red light area, this part pretty run down, but has the remains of some nice old houses and cobbled streets going up the hill towards Santa Teresa.

The Escadaria is very special, thanks to the ceaseless efforts of Jorge Selarón, a Chilean artist who started to renovate it in 1990. It subsequently became his life's work (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escadaria_Selar%C3%B3n). A life that ended tragically last year, when his charred body was found on the steps. No one knows for sure if it was murder or suicide - a local resident told us "Oh, it was definitely suicide", but suspicion also fell on an ex-partner who wanted a share of the action - not that Selarón ever became rich.

Anyway, the steps are wonderfully faced with colourful tiles from all over the world - as people heard about his work, they started bringing him tiles from far and wide. An ITV team was filming while we were there - collecting material for the World Cup - a sort of Rio mosaic. It was fun talking to them, and to all the hippy types selling jewellery, tiles etc. In fact, had lots of fun talking to all sorts of people - great to be out and about, must break out more often!

Another late blip - it's now Wednesday evening and I don't have anything yet for today. What a week!