WE HAVE A TEAM FOR YOU IN RIO

Thank to you, I am a Tour Guide for 10 years and I am travelling all Brazil to make this enormous country easy for you. Thanks to your travel dreams I have friend from all over the World. Thanks to my endless love for this country I became a travel planner based in Rio de Janeiro.

I am the one that you are going to meet in your first time in Rio and I am ready to show you even the places that few brazilians know. I am here to help you to be far from the tourist traps and I am the one that you can be sure that will make your moments in Rio de Janeiro the happiest ever.

10 YEARS OF WORK MEANS 10 YEARS OF PURE HAPPINESS.

I am glad to be the one who helps my country to be in the memories and in the hearts of millions in this planet.

So many guests find me thanks to others who came here and had a fantastic time, people also read reviews about my tours and they see how passionate I am when I show every little corner of my land...so I am proud to find people willing to help me to make Rio wonderful and Brazil a fascinating country that will remain in your plans FOREVER!!!

Now let me introduce you my team and you will see that you will always be in good hands in any trip to Rio de Janeiro.

Marcone Lima is what my guests say: MINI RAFA...but this MINI RAFA IS BIG!!!!!!!

We know each other for 4 years and we have one main thing in common: PASSION FOR BRAZIL!!!

We are proudly brazilians and really committed to provide you a gorgeous time in Brazil. We plan our trips together and we study about the country just to make Brazil easier for you.

And we are based in Rio de Janeiro, here we keep on thinking about new places and different tours to make Rio one of the best destinations in the World.

Marcone, despite of his "baby look", he is veeeeeeeeeery experienced about Rio de Janeiro, you can find some reviews about him in some famous websites such as CruiseCritic.com, Tripadvisor.com and Localyte.com where he is the second in the Brazilian Ranking and the 4th in the World.

When I am not available, he is my immediate tour guide that I will recommend for you, so you can trust him absolutely. He will know how to make your trip perfect and with a lot of fun. Marcone is very skillful on dealing with people. Once you are strolling around Rio with Marcone, be sure he will be part of your family!

So much that our friends from California Cathy and Barbara talks about him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tudm-i8Rlm4

Marcone is a registered guide and he is always ready to make Rio a destination that you will keep in your thoughts and in your heart!

Marcone have the english that flows like water in the river, his spanish is fabulous.

Well, I have a "Celebrity" who works for me!!! have you ever been welcome by a Queen when you travel to a new place????

Diana is the Queen of Kindness, the Queen of People's behavior....YOU WILL BE WELCOME BY SOMEONE WHO IS MORE THAN ROYAL...The Queen Diana will be your Tour Guide. She is another fantastic professional that I trust my guests.

Here in my blog if you simply type DIANA PERSI, you will read more postings about her work!!

So everytime I recommend you Diana you can rest assure that you will have a Guide with a smile that has the same size of Brazil, someone with crystal clear english and you will have a friend who will assist you from the very beggining to the very end of your day.

She works as a guide for more than 20 years...so I have by my side one of the best tour guides in Rio.

Besides being so amazing tour guide, efficient professional and knowledgeable, Diana is one of my greatest personal friend. So once you are with her, you will be with me!

Diana speaks wonderful english, great spanish and perfect french.

Another great Tour Guide that is part of my team is Rodrigo Tapajos, very knowledgeble about Rio and he had some tours that I was present. He will know how to take you to my secret spots. He was with me when I took the italian journalist to make a documentary about the guarani tribe Tekoa Mboy Ty.

Rodrigo is a great tour guide that I trust all my guests....

Impossible to pronounce the name of the tribe, but it will be a great surprise in your trip to Rio.

We are a group of five very experience tour guides ready to give you Rio de Janeiro by the eyes of the natives.

We struggle for your happiness!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

RAFAEL IS BACK TO RIO - BACK TO WORK

THERE'S BEEN A WHILE I AM BACK FROM MY LATEST AMAZON TOUR IN MARANHAO...But so many things happened here that I could not update this GUEST'S HOME which is my blog.

Yes, this is the place where you know more about myself, a place where you really notice that not a tour guide will welcome you in your fascinating trip to Rio, you will be sure that you are meeting a friend who is honored with your visit!!!!

I am here to make Rio your home....Here will be the place that you will come back over an over again.

I am back to my people, back to one of the places that I mostly love in this endless World....

RIO DE JANEIRO WAS WAITING FOR ME AND WHEN I GOT BACK I REALIZED THAT I HAD SO MANY THINGS TO DO!!!!

Well, back to the nights of Lapa where SAMBA RULEZ!!!!!!!!!

It is a privilege to take my friends to the MECCA of our culture. Just a stroll around the streets of this bohemian neighborhood in Rio will be your self assurance that Rio is a smiling place, where we all have space left in the heart to give you shelter.

In Lapa you will find the temples of Samba such as CARIOCA DA GEMA, RIO SCENARIUM, SEMENTE AND SACRILEGIO...churches of our brazilian music that will prove that "MUSICAL MIRACLES" do exist!!!!

Marcone, my great "right arm" and fascinating Tour Guide is always with me taking our people to the best and unique places in Rio for you to have JUST FUN!!!


I am always proud to work with friends and I am honored to have colleagues and associates in other countries in South America as well. Back to Rio, the argentinean Tour Guide and wonderful friend Veronica Lampon, always trust me her guests in one of the stops in Rio de Janeiro.

We tour together around Rio and we take our people to the real spirit of the city!!!!

Veronica and I work together either in Brazil or Argentina and we are always ready to show you the real stuff, we are ready to make you in touch with our people and genuine culture!!!

Thanks Vero for everything you give to me, it is very special to have you so present in my life!

This day we had a glorious tour with our friend Merilyn from Germany...we had a blast!!!

Everywhere I go in Rio I always meet incredible people and I take my guests to places where locals love to go, and forget about formalities, here you will be treat as my great friends and I always take my friends to special places!!! Free spirit, lots of information and loads of fun. This is my compromisse with you when you trust your brazilian dreams in my hand!!!

Right after my trip to Maranhao, Geshu and Kane were my first guests in Rio and we were planning for such a long time this honeymoon trip!!! Geshu proud the wisdon and curiosity of India and kane proud the joy and the strengh of Africa. And I provided the heart of Rio...So our days in Rio were very complete and they had the chance to see places where very few tourists can visit.

Well, I never have tourists in my tours...I HAVE TRAVELLERS IN MY TOURS!!!!

That is the difference...and this is what make the tours so unique and so special.

I welcome guests and I turn them into great friends!!!

Thank you Geshu and Kane for your confidence and great generosity!!!

By the way, this lovely couple live in New Jersey, USA!!!!

Back to my neighborhood. I live in Copacabana, probably this is also the place where you will stay in Rio. Copacabana is more of a district, it is a real city!!! Here you can feel the positive vibe of Rio, it is for sure one of the most glamourous places in the World.

If the city of Rio had a capital, Copacabana would be the one...

Copa explains the city very well and you will have the chance to be part of it.

In Copa I am close to my guests and we all have a lot of facilities all around!

Right after I returned from my trip to Maranhao, I also had the great pleasure to welcome Cinzia and Luca from Milan, ITALIA!!!! We had lots of fun, and they really experience Rio in a very different way. We spent most of our time in Niteroi visiting places that not even the locals know!!!

It was a fantastic experience for all of us!!!

I am sure that this wonderful couple will send more italian friends!

and I am very grateful for such a deep confidence and friendship!

Also with another tour with italians, with the journalist Domenico Pacifico and his girlfriend Giulia, I could take them to see one of our best hidden treasures, an indigenous tribe settled in the ocean side of Niteroi, in Camboinhas. I have taken so many guests to see this absolutely hidden surprise of all tours! Here my friend, a member of a tribe called PATAXÓ from Bahia was explaning me a lot about their culture in the own enviroment.

So folks I am finally back to Rio...back to my so dear land!

RAFAEL TORRES LOPES

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

IMAGES OF A PLACE OF FAITH - SÃO JOSÉ DO RIBAMAR

Bewildering...I could have written just one word to explain Maranhao...bewildering....

Maranhao invite us for adventure...also for fun and romance...How can you not fall in love with endless sunsets in the sand??? How can you not be involved with so many beauties????

I am from Rio de Janeiro but I confess,. I have to share my heart also with Maranhao.

One of the less famous States in Brazil!!! Not so famous, really unknown among travellers in the World...But I can tell you...this is one of the most fascinating hidden paradises in Brazil...

The australians understand me perfectly...When you think about going to Australia, you will think about Sydney which is gorgeous, but you will never think about Kimberley in your first trip to the aussie island, right????

Same with Maranhao...who will think about Maranhao when you have Rio to visit????

As a typical carioca but also a proud Brazilian I highly suggest you...COME TO MARANHAO!

SÃO JOSÉ DO RIBAMAR...it is the pilgrimage center of the North East Region after another famous one, JUAZEIRO DO NORTE in the State of Ceará. Brazil is very catholic and in every region there are some sanctuaries where people really come in crowds to express their faith...The church is very small but the St. Joseph is very appreciated here and people say that St. Joseph performs miracle.

Well, it is true...São José do Ribamar is a miracle of Nature...the endless sea baths the coast giving us so many incredible views...São josé do Ribamar keeps the peaceful ambience of a Brazil from hundred years ago and I love that!

The island of São Luis (also known as THE ISLAND OF LOVE) is divided by 4 cities, Paço do Lumiar, Raposa, São José do Ribamar and the capital of the State, São Luis...

The island is huge and I have been to Maranhao so many times and I could not travel all around the island, but I will get there!!! São Luis has beauties that not even the best brazilian travel can figure out.

Marcone and I are here for you...we are experienced guides who work with radical passion, so everytime you come to Brazil you can be sure that you will have friends and that you are going to have lots of fun!!! We are here to plan your trip in the best way possible and we are ready to show you so many surprises in this wonderful and spectacular country called Brazil.

We are genuine brazilians who are always concerned to make you a BRAZIL'S EXPERT.

Lots of love to all of you,

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

A LAZY DOG IN SÃO JOSE DO RIBAMAR

Every where I go I walk with my camera in hand because I always find an interesting shot and I specially love to photograph street animals and also taking photos of animals in the wild.

Marcone decided to go to the church in São José do Ribamar to thank OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVENS his success at the college, beside being a fantastic tour guide, he is studying medicine to be a nurse. As he is very catholic everytime he goest to Maranhão he has to go to a city next to São Luis which is a PILGRIMAGE CENTER in this region of Brazil.


São José is one city that is part of the island called Sâo Luis...beautiful fishing spot and with an interesting pier...soon I will post some more beautiful pictures that I took there!!!

Well, I came across with this lazy dog with funny colors...He was not so friendly when i took this picture but for sure he gave me the chance to share one of my most interesting photos in my amateur photography career.

RAFAEL TORRES LOPES
Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es