WHEN WINTER STARTS IT IS TIME TO COME TO BRAZIL!!!

No no no, this is not the wrong blog!!!! It is a blog where you will learn about Rio and Brazil, but it is also a blog where I share with you my impressions about everything. This is the space I have to make you finding out more about myself!!!

This posting is just to let you know that there is a light in the end of the tunnel....when you have to wake up early and go to work in a freezing morning, you can think that very soon you will be baking under our sun, you will see people walking around in our ocean promenade enjoying our summer!!!

WINTER IN THE NORTH HEMISPHERE - SUMMER IN THE SOUTH HEMISTHERE!!!

So what are you doing???? COME TO RIO AND RAFA WILL WELCOME YOU WITH WIDE OPEN ARMS!!!
I always remember my sweet winter adventure in Canada! :) It made me realize that people need a escape when ice, snow and severe cold start knocking our door....When I was there I did picture myself swimming in one of our tropical paradises like this wonderful spot in Paraiba State called BAIA DA TRAIÇÃO where the dutch set foot for the first time in the 1500s...The place is still there, completely untouched, where life is simple, where you can steps on grains of sand, but listening the same sound of steping on snow like I was doing in Montreal, Canada.

Going to Quebec by boat and sailing around the island of Florianopolis in Santa Catarina State gave me the same pleasure. I love water and when I was missing my time in Rio I just took any ice breaker under a severe cold temperatures, but I did not care, I always love to feel fresh air around me and this is something you can do a lot in Canada during winter!!!

Whetever I am I love enjoying life and share great moments of my life to all people and friends.

On the road always....My work allows me to do things that I really love...In my way to the Laurentides and also in my way to Lençois Maranhenses, everything is fun and joy!!! But it is time to you to come to Brazil to enjoy our Summer!

Me and the animals, I love all kind...deers were a constant presence in every place I went in Canada. And Yes....lots to do in the winter, if you do not get out of your house, you get depressed, so when the sun is out...we have to take advantage of the beautiful surroundings!

Exchanging the cold weather to beautiful beaches in Niteroi...It is a good treat. And Niteroi, maybe you do not know that, it is one of the precious surprises in your trip to Rio!!! I lived 20 years in Niteroi and I really know what I am talking about!!!

This wonderful scenery is in Niteroi, the name of this paradise???? ITACOATIARA!!!

Polar Bears in Canada...wild bulls in the Amazon...In Saint Felicien way north of Quebec Province you can learn a lot about canadian fauna and you cad be in touch with different animals like POLAR BEARS, WOLVES, LYNXS, BISONS, MOOSES...and when you explore the Amazon, to be more specific in the island of Marajó, huge island in the middle of Amazon River, you come across with WILL BUFFALOS which is the main working tool for farms in the savannah...Lots of clothes in Saint Felicien and nearly naked in the Amazon...I love this contrasts and you should also experience it.

Waterfalls are another great passion, no matter if the Falls are frozen just like in Mont Morency close to Quebec City or in the middle of the jungle in Carolina Location in the Amazon in Maranhão. Water is necessary to my life, and in our summer you can visit so many rivers and different kind of Falls.

Driving in Canada was fun...I made several stops just to step on snow and see the white mountains...so great, you can really experience the Winter but it is good for adventurous brazilians like me...You should take a break of the cold weather and discover more about Brazil. Every State of Brazil and specially in Rio de Janeiro, I will always be here for you.

IN RIO DE JANEIRO YOU DO HAVE A FRIEND!!!!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

A JOURNEY TO THE SPIRIT OF RIO - MY BRITISH FRIENDS!

Thanks to my wonderful friend Jane Bell, a remarkable Tour Leader of Journey Latin America it get the chance to know wonderful friends from England and Ireland. We strolled around Downtown Rio. Janet, David, Anne, Diarmuid, Beryl, Phill, Margaret, Graham, Andrea, Richard, Christine and Roger...Wonderful people, ready for adventure, knowledge and fun, so I made Rio easy for them. We dived into Rio's daily life.

The starting point was in Copacabana, POSTO SEIS at Sofitel Hotel close to the beautiful Fort of Copacabana and not so far from Ipanema!

We walked to the General Osorio metro in Sa Ferreira Street here in Copa, we visited the Sunday Veggie Market (Feira) at Rainha Elizabeth Street where we got to know more about brazilian vegetables, fruits and brazilian customs with a single visit in a block in the street!!!

We took the metro and I could explain the metro system in Rio de Janeiro, some interesting rules like a car just for women in the peak hours to avoid men who like taking advantages of them...we talked about the cleaness and we could also talk about how much the METRO serves the city.

We visited our Cathedral, we got not so impressed to see the church outside which is just one trashy construction, inside is more interesting to see the huge steam glass in its interior. After that we tried to take the Santa Tereza bondinho, but for maintainence reasons we found out that the tram came in each 30 minutes. Our time was too precious to waste so we decided not to take the tram. So we walked to Cinelandia to try to take a taxi and for our surprise NO TAXI DRIVERS ACCEPTED TO TAKE US TO THE HILL OF SANTA TEREZA BECAUSE THEY SAID IT WOULD DAMAGE THEIR WHEELS AND ALSO IT WOULD BE BAD FOR THEIR ENGINE!!!!

Oh well, after this ridiculous attitude, we had the opportunity to see our Opera House Teatro Municipail, the City's Council Palacio Pedro Ernesto, our National Library and the Fine Art Museum and of course we could visit CINELANDIA, in my opinion one of the most interesting spots in our Centro.

And we decided to have some very brazilian to eat...we did not have Feijoada as we wanted, but we had an encounter with the best of our PETISCOS (brazilian snacks) in our most famous BAR AND RESTAURANT AT CENTRO, site of our "happy hour", place where every single person from different part of the city just sit to talk about daily life (the COTIDIANO)...We ate at AMARELINHO....

Very traditional and old bar in the heart of our Downtown, this is place very soon will turn 100 years and still follows the tradition of serving prime food for every client...

The 13 of us sat and we order some drinks as the heat was intense, and I was really in the mood to find what we could eat in a very brazilian way, so I ordered the most common snacks: CALABRESA COM FRITAS (pork sausage with chips), GURJÃO DE PEIXE (pieces of fried fish filet in a tartar sauce), CHURRASQUINHO (barbicued beef) and the traditional and yummy BOLINHO DE BACALHAU (cod fish balls); we had a lovely time and we could rest a little to continue our walking journey through the soul of Rio de Janeiro.

We made our way to Lapa...the capital of night fun in Rio for years and years...this is the bohemian spot where we can experience real samba in the various old samba houses like Carioca da Gema, Sacrilegio, Democraticos, Circo Voador and Rio Scenarium. We saw some abandoned (and beautiful buildings that deserves preservation urgent) houses in our way to the Stairs of Selaron.

Well, that deserves a special paragraph...when we reached the Street Joaquim Silva where the stairs finish...we come across with a majestic master piece...one man coming from Chile a little bit more of 20 years ago, starting putting tiles in one of the many stairways of Santa Tereza (another very old neighborhood of Rio), one by one, giving colors and life to one simple place in the area....the result of 20 years hard working made such a wonder of MEN'S CREATION.... THE ESCADARIA SELARON...his name is Selaron and he gave to Rio such a great present...now people from different parts of the World bring a tyle from their homalends and Selaron put it in the walls or ground of the stairs.

And Selaron is also a talented painter and he always invites us to visit his work shop where you can see his paitings with scenes of Rio, scenes of our Favelas and the his mark...pregnant women that he says it is a personal problem when we asked him why so many pregnant woman in his Art... This we will never know, but we have some conclusions that I will talk to you in person...

Finally we took 3 taxis to go to the other side of Centro...we visited our Monastery, the São Bento Monastery, our first impressive barroc construction. Actually it started as a small chapel erected by spanish monks in 1500s...and they finished the construction between 1576 and 1590...This is a great sample of our portuguese barroc architecture which is very simple from outside but when we go to the interior of the church we simply find out ANOTHER PLANET...old images of Saints like Bras, Edviges, Gonsalo...carved wood covered by gold leaves, absolutely gorgeous afrescos.

We used metro, our legs, taxis and bus in this great trip in one side of Rio that hardly noone explore...it is a Rio where we can really see the "face" of Brazil; it is a Rio full of European Stories, it is a Rio that only locals can understand and now our guests had the great opportunity to understand more about our simple and fascinating daily life...A Rio de Janei ro made for you to fall in love with the city and come back more and more!!!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

THE SECRETS OF NITEROI WITH MY SPANISH COUSINS

When you plan a trip to Rio I am sure you never think about Niteroi....SERIOUS MISTAKE. Coming to Rio you will never think that you can see secluded and gorgeous beaches, indigenous communities, simple and fascinating fishing villages and so many different landscapes.

Who has heard about Niteroi???? Absolutely no one!!!

But I was raised in Niteroi which stands in the other side of our Bay called GUANABARA.


Niteroi deserves a whole day to explore the Bay Area and the Ocean side. Niteroi will give you more of Brazil and you will find out how wonderful our State is. The city is part of my tour ALWAYS. And when people say that Sugar Loaf has the most beautiful sunset of Rio...well I doubt!

Piratininga, Camboinhas, Sossego, Itaipu and Itacoatiara...none of these names are in your travel book, but I think it is time to change your mind!

Well, just see one of my videos and you will see how wonderful our wild beaches are, here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIAiiJgUSG8

You know that my tours are very complete, it usually takes more than 8 hours but you will see many amazing places that you will never find in any map (forget about google map, eh? ) Niteroi will be a magic place for you to explore.

Bego y Victor from the Basque Country, Spain came to Rio and we had one day together. We had lots of fun and I could practice my spanish. They are Lopez like myself so it was a family tour. We went to many different places in Niteroi, we visited the bay side and the ocean side of Niteroi and we watched the sunset in Piratininga beach, such an impressive light, great inspirations for fantastic pictures!

My work gives me pure happiness, my work allows me to know people from all over the World and now my spanish friends are coming!!!

QUE VIVA ESPAÑA!!!! :)

Mis primos, gracias por tanta amistad y por mucha diversion que tuvimos en este dia tan hermosos en Tierras donde yo crecí. Los recibí con gran honor y estoy seguro que nos veremos siempre por aqui y por supuesto en España!!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

THE MASTER OF SANTA TEREZA

Selaron is one of the most interesting characters of Rio de Janeiro. He has the heart and the joy of Brazil but Chile gave us the honor to accept Selaron as our dearest citizen. This fellow changed the HISTORY of Santa Tereza, the only one who gave colors in one of the various stairways of our bohemian neighborhood of Santa Tereza.

Piece by piece he shown us his thankfulness for being accepted in our country. We welcome everyone with arms wide opened!!! Now he has one of the massive human master piece in the World. And you can find this wonder here in Rio.

Surely, THE STAIRS OF SELARON is part of my tour. When we hear about Santa Tereza, Selaron is one of the names.

A chance we have to see a different Rio, a chance for us to be in touch with our curious people and a chance for you to be part of our lives.

Selaron will always be there, always ready to take pictures with his tongue out...he is quite extravagant, but he has a heart of a baby.

SELARON HAS A CARIOCA SOUL and he will be always there to say how happy he is to see you visiting every spot of Rio with Rafa.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour guide and Travel Planner