THE DANISH INTERVIEW - PART 3

JAKOB TOKSVIG - What do you like the most about Rio?

RAFAEL TORRES LOPES – The vibe of this city is amazing!!! I like the informal way to see life that our people have. I like that no one really cares about how you are when they meet you, they treat you equally, our people are friendly and that makes Rio one of the most pleasant cities in Brazil.

I WILL GIVE YOU 5 THINKS THAT I LOVE IN RIO, it doesn’t matter if it is a certain place or something that I just enjoy doing in our daily life!!

1 – GOING TO NITEROI, a city in the other side of our Bay..there I have my favourite beaches, there I have some places where I meet with myself, I always get nostalgic when I go to Niteroi because I was raised there!

2 – LAPA – It is our bohemian temple...if you want to see all kind of people you must go there, if you want to experience the best of brazilian music specially SAMBA, you really need to go to Lapa. It has been our HOTTEST NIGHT SPOT since the imperial times, and this is about 200 years ago!!!

3 – COPACABANA AND IPANEMA – Well, If you wish to explain the soul of Rio in different places here in the city, well you have to go to Copacabana and Ipanema, very informal and popular coastline neighborhoods of Rio. This is where you can have everything without going too far from where you are. You get to understand more about Rio when you really experience these two places!!!! Walking in the “waving” pavement of Copa and have a beach day in Ipanema can simply be a simple and fantastic experience when you are in Rio!

4 – TIJUCA FOREST – This is my escape when I am dying of hear down here in the coast, I simply go to our mountains and I enjoy the fresh air taking a natural shower in the water springs of Paineiras (it is a very carioca thing to do), at this forest I can have even JESUS CHRIST to visit...the famous statue is there and I do love going to the top of Corcovado where you can have a privilege view of the entire city and this is really the place where you can understand clearly the map of Rio de Janeiro; in the forest I can meet monkeys and feed them with bananas, I learnt that it is better giving banana to them, otherwise they go to the bird nests and eat the poor bird’s eggs!!!! At the forest I can turn back time and think about the time when the indiginous made the trails that today it is very green roads leading to many incredible surprises that just Tijuca Forest can offer, and our spectacular BOTANIC GARDEN is part of the forest!!!

5 – A SATURDAY NIGHT AT FEIRA DO NORDESTE

In a glance it seems a huge STADIUM, but it is not....it is a big place where our people coming from the north go to live their own traditions...it is a place full of colorful stores selling typical food from different parts of Brazil, it is a place that in one single weekend can get together about 20000 people. There are two nice stages where FOLK MUSIC isperformed for free and the population and including us have a blast!!! The restaurants there simply provides the best of our national cuisine. Going to FEIRA DO NORDESTE is a real journey to all over Brazil!!!