I finally did my 3rd Tourist thing and liked it

Sue and John had to catch their plane monday night, so in the afternoon, once they were basically done packing, they decided that they had time to go to Santa Teresa on the Bonde (tram). I'd been avoiding it because I went once (walking) and while I thought the buildings old and beautiful, it seemed a little too aware of it's quaint-ness. Sue REALLY seemed to want to go, so seeing that I was feeling too sick to care about whatever I might be doing, I thought, 'why not go and make the best of it'. We went to wait for the bonde, which turned out to be interesting. First, there was the guy who I started talking to in the line for the bonde. He'd been waiting in line for 10 minutes before we got there. He was a character. He was a young Israeli guy who just finished college and was treating himself to South America. He said Israel is so small that there is no where to travel to in his own country, so they wait until they finish either university or army, and go abroad. He'd already done the 'favela' tour which horrifies me, but whatever, and the Christo (Christ Redeemer, one of the new 7 wonders of the world). At the Christo, he mentioned that he didn't stick his arms out to the side like the statue like everyone does for photos because he's Jewish. I thought that amusing because when we went there yesterday, I'd wondered about that same thing. He was interesting in a weird way. He told us that everything is ALWAYS on time in Israel and that they would protest quite vocally the delays and the lack of concern by the perpetrators here in Rio. He couldn't believe that cariocas just put up with it.
We stood there in line for a while and I told him that cariocas don't mind waiting that much sometimes because they have a good time talking to people. He didn't get that we were having a good time talking. He must have had a good time because I kept laughing at stuff he kept saying, and people always like that.
Ok, finally our turn to board the bonde. The bonde gang waited a little while to get going because they wanted to fill every inch of the bonde and also the conductor had to walk around or something first (the Israeli guy mentioned the first tram delay was because the conductor was exhibiting the same behavior.) Once we got going, I was very sorry that I wasn't hanging on the sides. I almost asked the girl next to me who was doing it if she wanted to sit and I'd hang. It seemed super thrilling...you go on overpasses that are have a little wire fencing between you and the street below. You squish by walls that are inches from your bunda. That's what had concerned me before, but if a brazilian bunda can get through, my little disappearing bunda (it sucks, I'm losing weight again) can for sure. I'm going to do it before I leave.
Sue wanted to get off to walk around. There are some beautiful and amazing homes up there. It was good, I'm glad I went.
Good, now I'm done with the tourist sites. Glad I can now say yes, I have seen blank and blank and blank. (I do have to admit that I was a little bit choked up when I first saw the Christo statue when we were approaching from the back.) Jardim Botanico: it is somewhere I will say, yes I've been, but I'll go again! (we didn't see any monkeys when we went. apparently, there was a monkey virus that went around 3 weeks prior and killed 'em all.) I like monkeys.