Bonde experience ( June ´11 )

The bonde that travels up to Santa Teresa from Centro is the last of the historic streetcars that once crisscrossed the city.

After joining at Carioca station, near Lapa, the bonde travels over the Arcos de Lapa - one of Rio's iconic sights. Built as an aqueduct in 1723 to bring fresh water from the Carioca river to the population of the city, it was converted to a viaduct for the Bonde in 1896. It is pretty high, and people hang on to the side of the trams crossing the Arcos...



quite fearlessly...

The tram clatters up through the cobbled streets towards bohemian Santa Teresa, where we stoppped to recharge our batteries.

The relief of getting off the tram safely was apparent to all ...

During lunch we agreed that it was possible to improve the standard of tram driving ...

The views of Centro are rather exciting for some .... (the darlek shaped concrete building - is the modern Rio de Janeiro Catherdal).

Unfortunately one of the Bondes crashed on the 27th August due to passenger overloading and some 23 technical faults being blamed including the brakes. There were sadly some deaths and many injured, so the future of the Bonde is unknown...

Rob & Bhavna xx