The Dutch girls and I went off to visit the most famous stairway in the entire world located here in Rio de Janeiro.
Escadaria Selarón is a set of world-famous steps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It’s located in the neighborhood of Lapa. As you walk along some bad looking streets, it just sort of pops up out of nowhere to surprise you.
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| This is the site before the colorful street appears |
A little color before you reach the stairs.
And surprise! its there!
This stairway is famous because there’s a guy who’s spent the last 20 years decorating it with tiles from all over the world.
He apparently has tile from over 100 countries.
Mexico!
Elton John was there 2 years ago and the guy bragged about it. I may be mistaken but I think a Michael Jackson music video was also filmed here some time ago as well. So famous it is.
And when I saw a tile from Texas USA, my home state and the logo of Texas Tech University, I knew this place was special.
Took some colorful photos.
On the way up we met the Chilean man responsible for this alley of stairs.
He apparently hangs out here most of the time.
Lunch time
Saw his workshop
And has a nice creepy picture
And likes to do the same silly face for every picture.
So I joined in.
At least it’s someone who speaks Spanish and someone I can actually communicate with around here. Nao falo Portuguese!
I was talking English with the Dutch girls and translating for the Chilean man. He asked us where we were from. When he found out that one of the girls, Natuk, was from Greenland he almost went ballistic.
He said he had never met anyone for Greenland before in all his life. He mentioned that he’s met people from over 90 countries. So today was a special day for the guy and he sure showed it.
The guy talked with us for almost an hour, showed us his workshop and couldn’t stop talking about the girl from Greenland and how he’s is never met anyone from there.
He even convinced her to send him a tile from Greenland of the flag of Greenland drawn by her to add to the history and collection of the place.
As we talked it was very apparent to me that the guy was a bit cooky and he was no longer a man of his work, but instead the work had become who he was and seemed quite lost to the rest of the world.
Just another way to leave a legacy in the world. This moment and understanding of this guy gave me a better understanding of my life and about the idea and ideology of leaving something behind and how we choose for things to define who we are or we are defined by the things we create or buy. And interesting side of life I suppose. Enlightening to say the least.
It’s also made me really think about the materialistic life most of us live in.
So far most of my clothes are pretty beat up, my shoes have holes in them, I stopped using hair gel and I find myself recycling anything I see and can use like old trash bags and I also don’t use grocery store plastic bags, when I take all the things I just bought ad return the bag to the check out lady they always give me a very confused look. I’ve also donated and thrown away many of my shirts, socks, underwear, towel and jackets. I have sold my motorcycle, I’ve lost countless things, I sold one camera and the other just broke leaving me with only one. I have since lost most everything, but gained everything as the same time being completely and utterly free. This journey has changed me in many ways and has given me a quaint and interesting perspective on material goods and how we choose to live with them or how we live for them. I have since become closer to the world in a profound and special way.
Since the beginning of this trip I started with no fear of losing anything. I came in with the idea that everything I had would be gone at the end or during the journey. My mind was complexly open to the world with no fear, taking in the experience. And I was reminded how awesome the feeling of complete and utter freedom to life and all that it is truly feels, and hope that everyone could experience such liberation from the life that society says we should have and is in accordance to what’ considered “normal”. And instead live life with no holds, no fear, no boundaries, one with oneself and the world and with admiration and perspective to what we truly are and experience as humans to the deep and rare core that we truly are.
So moving on…. Here are the Lapa arches of Rio.
Saw some nice porn inside the phone booth.
Saw some funky art
Went to an art exhibit at the art museum.
Complete waste of $8 dollars.
Got this ridiculous thing you put in your mouth that plays music you can hear when you plug your ears with your fingers.
Booger
Some funky stuff.
Useless stuff
And more things.
The view outside the museum was better
We also hit up the Lapa street party which was intense
The Dutch girls were lots of fun. They are off to Salvador tomorrow and I wish them well.
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| Guess who had a few drinks lol |
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