SELARON AND MY GUESTS - THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MUCHAS GRACIAS, MUITO OBRIGADO!!!

Selaron started that extraordinary work 22 years ago and I remember sitting in one of the steps drinking a cool beer with my college friends!!! In that time I was thinking about being a diplomat! Now I am not working in any brazilian embassy in the World, I was sure if I continued my career they would send me to Nigeria, this is what happened with fresh new diplomats...

But life gave me a degree of INFORMAL DIPLOMACY and I represent Brazil quite well with my guests. I keep on convincing the World that Brazil is a reliable source of happiness and pleasure!!! For sure one of the features of such awesome tours is no doubt the Stairs of Selaron.

It is a everlasting part of my tours...If you ever heard about Santa Tereza or Lapa, be sure that you are going down the stairs and you will be impressed by every step you make!!!

Each little step has its history and every step you make will take you to a trip...a trip to the places you have been, a trip to your fondest memories...because the tyles that Selaron put there has to do with a place, any place that you were born, that you had something important, a place that has to do with you life!!

When JoAnn and Jim came as part of their World Trip, we had a wonderful time!!!

Not only he is the inventor of these fantastic stairs but also Selaron is a painter...in his own style...his portraits are hilarious and his imagination with all PREGNANT WOMEN is ramarkable. By the way, when you visit the Stairs, I will make sure you will visit his art work shop where he sells his paintings. It is the only way we have to keep his lovely work!! He has no official help. Sadly our Government does not really care about this City's treasure!

But I care!!! I am always happy when my folks have fun with Selaron...a sweet extravagant bloke from Chile that adopted Brazil as his only homeland. He says he is Brazilian by heart and by soul. Brazil really welcomed him in the time he really needed!!!! My guest Robert from California and his family had heaps of fun there. Thanks to the help of my aussie friend Jane Bell that always send me some good work.

I had a fabulous time with my swedish group. I always have groups from Sweden thanks to Gioreley and Wendy that is organizing an amazing work in Stockholm promoting our Carnaval and they know that Selaron is a lively part of our culture!!

Selaron knows that I am a cat person so he painted this one just for me, and you an be sure that this paiting is write hang in my living room...He knows how to please you and in his art he pictures our daily life, the life in the Favelas, the dance of Samba, the kytes in the sky and the landmarks of Rio. The Sugar Loaf, the Christ, the Favelas and the old corners of Santa Tereza are always present in his art.

My argentinean great friend Veronica Lampon is a tour leader of various operators in the UK, and we always take our english guests to visit the stairs and loud laughings are guaranteed in every visit.

The Stairs of Selaron is really one of the best treasures of Rio, and certainly this is the place that you should never miss.

It is not only a tourist attraction, visiting the Stairs is always a personal journey...it is a revival of so many personal memories. It is a crazy dream of a mad man just like Salaron usually says.

So now you know...ONCE IN RIO...GO TO SELARON STAIRS.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

A Selaron's friend