A GIFT FROM AUSTRALIA

I have been working as tour guide for more than 7 years now. It is cool job because I have the chance to meet people from all over the World and people from some specific countries comes more to Rio to have my tours. I do alot showing every little corner of Rio, allowing my guests to have a deep knowledge about our culture, about our cities and about our daily life!!! RIO BECOMES MORE THAN A HOLIDAYS DESTINATION, RIO BECOMES THEIR HOMES!!! I have always welcomed a lot of people from basicly 5 countries.

USA, ENGLAND, RUSSIA, CANADA AND AUSTRALIA, and then people from different countries.

MY TOP FIVE ALWAYS CHANGE IN EVERY HIGH SEASON, and now I noticed that the number of AUSTRALIANS are increasing and it is a NEW WORLD OF NEW FRIENDS!!!

My top fives are:

USA
Australia
Russia
England
Canada


Very proud to welcome such wonderful people and AUSTRALIA proudly gives to me!!! And it is a very pleasant WEDDING...I have always loved Australia, actually after USA and England this is the country that I deeply wish to visit!!!

Recently I welcomed Justin and Belle, such a fantastic young couple from Melbourne and we had a blast in Niteroi and also in a very simply but absolutely interesting walking tour in Copacabana; one day was good enough for me to realize that I got spectacular friends in Melbourne; and just yesterday, I mean, 8th of August, I had the great honor to meet another POWERFUL TRAVELLERS, the glorious couple Marg and Peter. Pety we just had one day, but I can tell you I did everything humanly possible to provide an intense one day tour and a quick gastronomy tour in our WORLD OF STEAKS! :) We had a great time at Cruzeiro do Sul Churrascaria (barbecue house) Not to mention that some months ago.

I had also the fantastic opportunity to make some tours with another aussie family from Melbourne, Darren, Lona and Carlos, my old friends which I am sure I have a CASTLE in their hearts!!!!

I know THEY CAN STILL CALL AUSTRALIA A HOME, but certainly thanks to me, they have another HOME in Brazil! :)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUCH A BIG CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP!!! LONG LIFE TO AUSTRALIA!!!!

AN AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE IN THE SOUL OF RIO

Marg came with Peter in Rio as part of the tour around the world, every place they come they leave a lot of enormous energy and wonderful feelings. They were my guests and they became friends for a LIFE TIME.

Another important challenge for me...Since they were in Santiago I knew that I had to make TWO DAYS in ONE DAY...including Marg's dream which was visiting the Christ, our most famous landmark...Well I accepted...We managed to talk in the phone as soon as Marg and Peter got to the hotel in Copacabana. And we arranged to meet in the day after and decide what to do!

I slept thinking about what i could do to show these people the best of my land....Right in the morning I called them and talk with Marg and we decide to start our tour, it was a cloudy friday but we decide to explore Rio no matter what...

As soon as we were driven in Lagoa we say the mountain of Corcovado free of clouds!!! :) AND MARG'S DREAM CAME TRUE! We had a great time at the Christ...

But I add many special places in their tour..We saw the less visiting part of Santa Tereza and we had a walking tour in the city center of Rio seeing buildings of all ages...from the portuguese Colony to the Brazilian Empire, and we stopped for a nice and cool beer in the OLD RIO AREA, a place called ARCO DOS TELLES. They had the best of our local snacks, PASTEL WITH SHRIMP INSIDE!!! A REAL STOMACH ORGASM!!!

Rafael Torres Lopes
donrafainrio@yahoo.es