I slept until about 5am and Ash was up soon after.

The photos above are sunrise at 5:11 and 5:42.

We went for a walk to the south end of the beach and back before breakfast, then had breakfast in the lounge.

We had booked a tour through Airbnb and this was our meeting spot at 10am. The tour guide was Pericles, a local native, whose father had a love of Greek mythology. He majored in history in college here so this tour is a way to use all of that, and he was great from that perspective. His regular job is managing a studio that produces music for video games.

Our first big stop was these tiled steps in a crowded neighborhood of narrow streets known as Escadario Selaron. Chilean artist Jorge Selaron lived on this street and starting in 1990, began adding tiles. It became a never ending project, him saying it would be finished when he died. The tiles are some that he himself painted as well as bought from other artists. He also invited people to send tiles from all over the world, and he would photograph them after he placed them and send it back to the owner to know that the tile is now part of the steps.

The tile in the middle of the yellow stuff is one of his own, a depiction of a pregnant woman that he knew personally. She appears in over 300 tiles on the steps, but he has never disclosed the nature of that relationship. Hercules knew him and said he was a pretty eccentric guy.

Looking back down the steps. The woman towards the bottom center that’s pointing was with a friend. Together they acted like they owned this section of the staircase and kept yelling at people who were getting in the way of their photos. It was pretty comical if it wasn’t so pathetic. 

That’s Jorge in the bottom photo. He was pretty depressed the last year or two of his life, attempting suicide a couple of times with pills. He finally succeeded by setting himself on fire and dying in the staircase. That was 2013 and then the stats were considered finished.

That’s Pericles talking to Ash.

This is the National Library.

Beautiful architecture and still a functional library. Built in 1905.

He gave us a very complete history of how Brazil even came to be about and I won’t bore you with the whole thing. But it was pretty interesting. Short version for my own memories:

• Portugal colonized in the 1500s
• Portuguese royal family moved to Rio in 1808 to get away from Napoleon, essentially establishing the United Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil
• When the emperor returned to Portugal, Brazil didn’t like feeling like a colony again, so his son became emperor, Pedro I, and established Brazil as an independent country
• Pedro I returned to Portugal as emperor when his father died
• His son, who became Pedro II, succeeded him and reigned for 49 years, at which time Brazil became a republic
• All of that accomplished peacefully with simple paperwork – no wars
• And yes, that’s the short version 😎

Their municipal auditorium. Still functioning with regular events, such as concerts and other performances.

He also gave us a lot of information about hills being removed, lagoons, being filled in, etc., to create the landscape we know today. The lagoons were infested with mosquitoes, and they needed to get rid of that and create more land so their solution was to fill the lagoons with dirt from the hills, which made it easier to build.

This is the oldest café in the city, functioning for the last 160 years

We stopped for treats, including a pastel de Nata (top left) that was the best I’ve ever had. Personal opinion of course. Ash didn’t like it as much as the ones he has had. 

This library has the largest collection of Portuguese books outside of Portugal. 

An interesting art installation at a building that was the old mint.

Some close-up of the installation, all of it created from broken glass.

The oldest church in the city, built in 1750. Called the Merchants Curch, it is one of the few in the world that is not owned by the Vatican. This one was built by the merchants of the neighborhood.

Masses are still said every day

This was part of an area that was completely redeveloped for the 2016 Olympics. This is called the Museum of the Future. If it looks familiar, the architect is the same as that of the Oculus in New York City.

The tour went a little long, and we were done after 1:30. We were going to have a lunch at a restaurant a few blocks from where it ended which Pericles had suggested, but their air-conditioning was broken and we were not gonna stay around for that. It got up to 90° today and it was humid on top of it.

Instead, we took an Uber to the açai place we saw yesterday.

It is a pay by weight sort of place so we filled up our cups and made this for lunch.

We stopped by the lounge on the way back to our room, and the water was looking beautiful.

We are back in the lounge for dinner, and I am writing this with a view

We will likely go for another walk before bed, but otherwise our day is done.