I remembered vaguely reading about a guy who had decorated some stairs with some tiles, the ‘Lapa steps’, and was using donated ones from around the world…

I wasn’t too excited about that, not being able to picture the whole thing, but I was around, so I thought I’d try to find them in the neighborhood of Lapa, which is foremost known for its bars and night scene.

I walked around but the whole area looked a bit run down and I was clearly out of my comfort zone as a tourist…. I didn’t even see any bars, not even closed ones, just shops in half-ruins what sold plumbing utensils, ‘antiques’ or just heaps of, well, trash.

Hadn’t seen any steps anywhere, so I basically gave up on that and trotted back to a more central area. And that’s when I found them.

This must be the most colorful place in the city. Maybe except during Carnival. These 250 steps lead up a hill to Santa Teresa, an area I also want to visit soon, and have been decorated all the way up – and on the sides of the adjacent houses – with endless tiles.

Mostly red, and then green, blue and yellow, the colors of Brazil, and with countless little tiles in between. Various European towns with their sights or coats of arms, kitschy scenes from the Alps, pop art, pop stars, anything you can think of.

 

The artist, Chilean-born Jorge Selarón was a painter and ceramist and has worked on the  Escadaria Selarón since 1990, when he began repairing and decorating the steps on his house on the very same street.

He first used old tiles he found on waste sites, but then incorporated all the donations he received, and continued a never finished artwork.

There’s a recurring theme of a pregnant african woman, but he never explained it more in detail, I read. A guide said that is was his wife and son who both died during child birth.

As another sad note, he was found dead on January this year on those very steps, and the police is looking into a murder case…

I continued wandering around Lapa, I even found the (still empty or closed) bars I had heard about, and walked along the Arcos da Lapa towards the Metro. The Carioca Aqueduct was built in the middle of the 18th century to bring fresh water from the Carioca river to the population of the city.

It was later used for  tramway, connecting Santa Teresa to the city centre, but is now out of use after a deadly tram accident. But it looked like they were working on it so I hope this will be open again in the future

Walking towards the metro and the Cinelândia square, I saw hundreds of policemen, in armour and all, congregating. People were still walking around and the policemen were queuing in cafés and at kiosks to get something to eat and drink.

It did not look like any action was imminent, but I could guess they were there to prepare for any further protests of the teachers, those occupying the legislative building of the city of Rio.

A neighboring bank though was getting its windows closed up with huge wood panels, so they were preparing for the worst…  And indeed, later in the night news we saw the street fighting and riots.