Trip to the historic Santa Teresa neighborhood.

Exploring Santa Teresa from the top down to Lapa.

The three of us took a trip to explore the Santa Teresa section of town. This is a charming and very old Rio neighborhood, built on a high mountain that rise abruptly from the city's center.

Photo of the old famous Santa Teresa tram called the Bonddinho.

From Wikipedia

The Santa Teresa neighborhood originated around the Santa Teresa Convent, built in the 1750s on the Desterro hill. At the end of the 19th and early 20th century it was an upper class borough, as testified by its magnificent mansions, many of which are still standing.

In 1896, the Carioca Aqueduct, a colonial structure that used to bring water to the centre of Rio, was converted into a viaduct for the Santa Teresa Tramway (bondinho). The historic tram line - the only remaining one in Rio - is a popular attraction among tourists. The ride starts in the city centre, near the Largo da Carioca square, crosses the old aqueduct and goes through the picturesque streets of the neighborhood. Wonderful views of the city downhill can be appreciated. Five people were killed at least 27 injured when a tram derailed in August 2011 and the service has been indefinitely suspended since then.

A ride on the Santa Teresa trolley (called the “bondinho” in Rio) is like a journey through time. At the bondinho’s main station in Centro at Largo da Carioca, a quick look around gives a foretaste of Rio’s future.

The rails still resonate with music of the old tram in the cobblestones streets.

We caught a small bus because the tram is no longer running. 

I decided to try and find a bus to the top of the hill (since the historic tram, Bondho, is no longer working) All you have to do is turn a few corners and you're faced with almost impossible walk up some very very steep hills.

View from the bus stop at the top of the hill.

We were lucky we found a small bus to get to the top of the neighborhood and we easily walked down taking the pictures all along the way. We would never have been able to walk up on our own steam.

More views from the top of the hill.

Additionally the whole area has become an object of revival and there are excellent restaurants dotting the area. We looked forward to having a great lunch there as well.

More views from the top where we got off the bus.

Many houses are currentky being restored.

A mural showing the old Bondho.

The whole area was really made livable because of the Bondho that ran across the famous Lapa aquaduct and up the hill. The easily recognized trolly was bright yellow, had open sides and wooden running boards. It had been made even more famous by the 1959 Oscar award winning movie "Opehus Negro". As mentioned above tragic accident about a year ago killed five people and they closed the long neglected line (my cousin tells me he remembers trollies going everywhere in Rio). The city of Rio and national government declared it of historic and national importance and plan to reopen it again under management of a Portuguese company that runs trams in Europe. I still remember how much I enjoyed riding on it the last time I was here.

A recently restored home.

After taking the subway, we caught a small bus that climbed the cobblestone streets up the hill. We got off where the bus turned to go up another hill. From there we were high up above the city, The Santa Teresa neighborhood was once a very wealthy section of Rio (as seen in the huge mansions throughout the area) that had fallen into disrepair.

Many mansions are in terrible disrepair.

Some large mansions are up for sale.

Many are in the process of being restored.

A hillside Favela is just below the street level.

The hillside also has a Favela clinging to its side. The two cultures seem to coexist side by side. The whole neighborhood is slowly going through a restoration process house by house.

The courtyard of an exclusive new hotel.

A Moroccan themed bar and restaurant is at the hotel.

An old house just below the hotel

An exclusive boutique hotel just opened and some of the neighbors, whose property values (and their taxes) have gone up dramatically are continually trying to have it shut down (the harried manager told us).

Junk yard art peeking out from the Favelas below.

The poster says "More Love Please".

The vistas of the city kept peeking out between the houses as we walked. They were built clinging into the steep hillside. Some simple houses had incredible structures holding them up. Some looked like major concrete bridge structures.

This simple two story house had a vast concrete structure below it.

This structure was built like bridge.

We passed a lot of graffiti and wall art that has become an important feature throughout Rio.

A movie theater.

As we descended, the older commercial area came into view. One old building was changed into a small movie theater showing that latest US releases.

People park anywhere.

Goat cooked Northeastern style.

We came to the restaurant area and found a place offering Northeast Brazilian delicacies. Outside they had a sign in the window showing their goat dish. That's all I needed to see.

One of the old tram station. 

We descended further, asking directions for LAPA. Soon we found ourselves on a very steep street with the major metropolitan cathedral and high office buildings straight ahead. 

Downtown appears behind the turn. The Metropolitan Cathedral is seen at right.

Downtown Rio is right ahead.

The Lapa aquaduct.

It seems our trip through Santa Teresa had come to an abrupt end. We found ourselves back downtown at the Cinelandia Square and the Metro station. And soon found ourselves home.

Wall art Downtown.

The historic Lapa Aquaduct.

Lapa is still rather run down.

The Lapa aqua duct and the cathedral.

The Rio opera house and the Cinelandia square.

Rio's brand new cable car system travels deep into one of the world's great slums

Teleferico do Alemao, Rio's new German cable car system travels deep into a recently pacified giant Favela.

I took a ride on what maybe one of the experiences of a life time. The current Brazilian government built this new cable car system that goes deep into a recently impenetrable giant Favela (slum) as part of its on-going urban pacification program.

Here is a classic Rio tune "Cidade Maravilhosa" The Marvelous City, for you to enjoy while you read this blog.

This just completed 3.5 kilometer cable car system uses German technology and takes local residents into places that before the recent pacification program (actually a war) were inaccessible. This Favela constitutes a city unto of its self. These pictures and videos cannot possibly convey the magnitude of this place.

Video from the cable car base station. Leaving the station traveling up into the Favela.

This area is still not really considered a tourist destination 

yet. It resides in the vast "Northern Zone", An area not even shown on the tourist maps which concentrate on the southern part of the city. What made this adventure so   wondrous is the unexpectedness of the whole experience.

I had glimpsed what I thought was a series of cable cars from the distance when traveling up to the mountains and Petropolis a few days earlier. You have to transverse along the edge of Rio's northern zone in order to leave the city. 

I had heard of a similar system that was built in Colombia and they have recently proposed one for Round Rock to Austin (without much credibility). I had not heard one had been built in Rio and was incredulous. Then I saw a short piece on it on the local TV. Nothing however prepared me for the enormity of what I experienced. The vastness of the slum and the isolation of the people living in the center was truly overwhelming. The task of bringing some semblance of law and order to a no-mans land controlled by the drug gangs is an on going experiment. The shear size of the problems and the amount of people involved seemed insurmountable.

The trip along Botofogo beach passes the monument to Rio's founder.

Brazil's monument to its fallen troops in WWII in Botofogo.

The trip started out with a bus ride through the ares I have been accustomed to. The trip traversed from the wealthiest to the poorest. The trip goes past Botofogo and the more recently constructed "Founder's Monument".

Rio City Hall with huge banner. In Brazil they use LGBTT, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals.

After traveling through the beach areas and downtown, we passed the tall Rio City Hall with a huge banner promoting "Rio without homophobia". Interesting how they continue to openly promote it in the face of the pope's visit (he fought a vigorous battle against Argentina's recent legalization of same sex marriage while still the archbishop of Buenos Aries). 

Rio's port which stays very busy now serving the off-shore oil rigs.

We cross the port area and the surroundings begin to get increasing bleak and unattended to. We final reach the area which abuts the vast Favela. This Favela until very recently was a literal no-mans land where the police had no presence and the drug gangs with huge armies of heavily armed children ruled the neighborhoods.

Clean doesn't even properly describe it. You feel you're in Germany.

The Cable Car system begins in a poorer class working neighborhood. The Favela almost begins immediately. The Base station is a real shock. Right out of Europe. Clean and modern, you could eat off the floor. This is something quite unusual in grimy Rio.

They even have a Britto piece on Carmen Miranda.

The system consists of 152 gondolas operating through six hill top stations stretching across 3.5 kilometers in length. 

The whole complex is a testament to German engineering.

My fellow passengers for the beginning of the trip consisted of young screaming tourists as well as some mildly irritated favela residents.

Some of my fellow passengers thought they were in Disney World.

The police have built modern versions of the old wild west frontier army posts at each hill top station. These police are heavily armed, with even huge "Bowie" type knives. Clearly the cable car system and the pacification of this vast favela are tied together. 

These hill top police stations were obviously designed to withstand major drug gang assaults. Note the louvered terraces running around the perimeter.

These guys were even more armed then the troops in Iraq. These police are the pacification teams. The troops that took the favelas first under control were called BOPE. 

A short official video of those elite forces is at the bottom of this post.

View from last station on top.

Me at the last station on top.

On the way up.

On the way up.

On the way down.

A two minute official video of the Brazilian elite police troops "BOPE".

Bope - Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais

July 10th, Downtown Rio and the Naval Museum.

Downtown Rio and the Naval Museum.

I had gone downtown on my own to see if there were any opportunities for me to be able to use my new blog skills for a museum here in Brazil. I toured several museums including the National Historic Museum, The Naval Museum and Paco Imperial (the original seat of colonial power). I left my brochures and got emails addresses. I actually got to see the director of the exhibits at the naval museum (a Japanese Brazilian in his 50's). Dang! (like my Texan?) If I thought the City of Austin had a large bureaucracy, it's nothing compared  to The Brazilian Navy (I don't want to even try and imagine it). 

On the way downtown with the bus along the Rio Guanabera Bay shore.

View from Botofogo Beach with Morro da Babilonia in foreground.

The Praca 15 and the Paco Imperial, the original colonial administrative building.

The courtyard and architectural details.

Me in the the Paco Imperial courtyard.

The former National Assembly Building when Rio was the Capital of Brazil.

The National Assembly and one of Rio's early churches.

A mannequin of the Argentine Pope Francis promoting his upcoming visit.

Pope Francis and I having an impromptu meeting. 

Inside the church during a lunch time mass.

A downtown Rio street. at lunch hour.

Some of the old buildings are still there. The National Assembly in background.

Another old downtown Rio church.

Inside of the above Rio church.

Here's a 30 second view of Downtown Rio traffic in front of the Banco Do Brasil building with its extensive art exhibit area.

I returned with Carmencita the next day and we traveled to downtown on the Metro (subway) to see the historic center, the Praca (plaza) 15 de Novembro, Paco Imperial (they had the most sophisticated interactive displays I've seen anywhere) Palacio de Belas Artes (too long a line to get in) and an art exhibit at the impressive Banco do Brasil art exhibit. 

The sub on display.

We decided to visited the Naval Exhibit next to the Praca 15 Square. Brazil is building five new submarines, four conventional and one nuclear (containing a French reactor). The purpose they say is to be able to project naval power and protect their deep sea oil reserves (90% of Brazil's proven reserves) and their sea ways which transport 90% of Brazilian exports. Seems a bit fishy. How can a sub with 200-300-ft depth capabilities protect a 6,000 ft well from being tampered with anything but remote control devices. 

The Brazilian fascination with subs can be traced back to WWII when German subs sank several ships just off the coast (and almost single handily brought Brazil in WWII).

From Wikipedia

In U-507's second she attacked ships along the coast of Brazil, in an inexplicable and shocking attack on a neutral nation's shipping in its own waters which almost single-handily provoked the Brazilian declaration of war on Germany.

The political ramifications of what U-507 and her crew had done off the Brazilian coast were enormous. Brazil went from a neutral favourable to Germany to an enraged opponent in the space of 48 hours, declaring war on Germany and supplying a Brazilian Expeditionary Force to the war in Europe and a squadron of ships to the Atlantic. More importantly, Brazilian Air Force bases were made available to American naval air squadrons, thus denying the U-boats their previous advantage of hiding in Brazilian coastal waters, and giving the Allies air cover across most of the Southern Atlantic, making the job of the U-boats significantly harder. In addition, Germany's standing amongst neutral nations, particularly the formerly pro-German dictatorships of South America, was in tatters, never to recover.

View of the old colonial era docks (recently renovated) from the bridge of Sub Chaser.

With that in mind, I visited the Naval display in downtown Rio just next to old docks. The sub display was very interesting and allowed me to photograph the components that I was familiar with from movies and books (I hadn't been in an actual sub since my school days). Next to it was a sub chaser, also open for tour. 

The engine room.

The battery controls.

The control room with periscope.

The control room.

The control room with sub's steering device at left.

The bunks.

The sub chaser.

Me at the guns.

The sub's periscope, smoke stack, radar and communication devices .

We toured the rest of downtown including the Paço Imperial-Casa dos Governadores (the best interactive displays yet). Even got to speak to the assistant to the director of design. I would have certainly been able to do a great blog guide for them. This was official government administrative building, the colonial mint and has historically renovated and is now an art museum.

A short video of Paço Imperial-Casa dos Governadores.

Banco do Brasil's rotunda.

The municipal Theater.

The opera hose in distorted photo.

We also visited the Rio Opera, the Belas Artes and finally the Banco do Brazil which was hosting a traveling French (Pompadour Center) exhibit. God bless the French! The exhibit, celebrating the role of women artists in the modern era was typically just short of being wacky. If it was in Texas, Perry himself would have cut off the electricity to the museum. We walked around a lot and Carmencita and I returned home to Copacabana by bus (during rush hour, but got a seat) quite tired.