THE ISRAELI MISSION IN NITEROI

Israel always send me new friends and each day I realize that I must visit this incredible country because they always come to Brazil. They are famous travellers, everywhere you go you find an israeli always ready for adventure, always ready for knowledge...

It is easy to tour around with very well informed people and it is pleasant to travel in my own homeland with people who love people...So nothing better than a tour in Niteroi!!!

It is not a typical tour...the tour in Niteroi takes you to the soul of Brazil where you will meet brazilians and understand so many different life styles. And we started in the magic fishing village of Jurujuba. My new friends Shai, Efrat (am I writing correctly???) and Meir. Three people crazy about brazilian culture!!!

It is not exactly what we consider " a touristy attraction"...it is a local place with slow pace of life that makes us being part of our culture!!! Jurujuba is not at all glamourous...It is just a simple place where we see how people work and where people live.

Shai is a football fan ( and so do I) and look what we found??? A boat with the name of a very famous soccer player in the 70s....So Jurujuba can give you lots of surprises.

The place is my playground for human shots and daily life pictures...specially in black and white...so I always take the chance to practice my hobby!!!

Labor...hard working....They live in a very simple way and when we walk in their community salutations like BOM DIA or BOA TARDE are often heard prooving that from the poor to the rich you will always treat kindly by Brazilians. Their friendly way is an attractions apart.

Yes...Jurujuba is part of a surprising destination called NITEROI. It is my homeland. I am not living there anymore, life and important reasons brought me back to Rio. But Niteroi remains in my heart and in some of my best memories.

Thanks to Israel for giving me also very special people!!!

SHALOM!!!!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide - Travel Planner

A friend of Israel

ONE MORE HAPPY DANISH FAMILY

I hope my so dear american friends don't get jealous, you can be sure that I love you all and I am always very grateful for all love, friendship and confidence that I always receive from the States, but the danish presence in my tours is growing bigger and I am honored to make so many incredible friends from Denmark, another country that I admire and another country that I am very interested!!!

DK gave me a fantastic friend, Jakob that also works here provinding so many ioncredible trips to all our visitors. And after the prestige to show Rio to Jakob's parent, Anita and Bent, he also recommended my tours to a very good friend, Dorthe and she wanted to make the visit of her parents special, so Hanne and Henning joined the group.

Dorthe lives in Rio and her parents came to Brazil to see her and visit many cool places in the country.

And I was in charge to show some secrets and little surprises of Rio....

As usual I focus our tour on lots of nature, so we saw the Forest, we went to our tiny ands charmous beach of Joá ( I love Copacabana, but nothing is better than a privacy of a wild beach, so Joa is a blast!), we went to the wetlands of Marapendi and we spent the rest of the afternoon in my beloved city, NITEROI.

We stopped in the Contemporary Museum which is not interesting inside, but outside you can see incredible views and you can take fantastic pictures; then we had lunch at A MINEIRA, a very exclusive brazilian typical food, all you can eat and you can have the best experience in our gastronomy in this local place. Then we went to PARQUE DA CIDADE, the famous view point to see the city of Niteroi and the skyline of Rio; and for a golden end, we went to the fishing village of Jurujuba where we interact with the locals, and they told us delicious fishermen's stories, we met Carlos and we played with the children. After that we went to the beaches of Adan and Eve close to the old fort of Santa Cruz constructed in 1565, one of the first construction in the Colonial Rio!!!

We had a tour full of culture and laughs. Dorthe is such a clever girl and in the future she will work with me providing even more quality in our tours, her knowledge about World's Fact and her view about Brazil is absolutely interesting; Hanne and Henning were so happy to see real things and dealing with genuine people.

YOU CAN VIEW THEIR OPINION ABOUT MY TOURS IN A VIDEO THAT I RECORDED IN JURUJUBA.

Please have a look and tell me what you think, right???

The address is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb-62xIZe-U

And to see more of this visit in the fishing village, we also have two more videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm8QMZQ8-FA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0dMWU8sYP0

They are amazing and again I am making more and more fabulous friends from Denmark!!!

TAK TAK,

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

ANOTHER DANISH FAMILY VISITING - BUT THEY ARE SPECIAL!!!!

It seems that swallowing the Sugar Loaf is a sort of fashion among my guests, eh????

But they really swallowed the HEART AND THE MAGIC OF RIO, and now the city is in their heart!!! : )))))) More danish guests, but these ones are REALLY SPECIAL...I mean, absolutely special people...if you read about my brother Jakob in my blog, then you have the main clue....THEY ARE THE PARENTS OF MY BIG BROTHER AND GREAT FRIEND JAKOB!!!!

Yes...I had the honor to show Rio to my friends Anita and Bent, and I did my best to show every little corner of this city, and they went to so many unique places that no tourists go!!!

We saw the forest, the natural springs of Paineiras, we went to the tiny little beach of Joá and we saw the oldest monastery of our State, São Bento with its incredible barroc architecture, and of course we ended our day in the so hidden city of Niteroi!!!! We also went to the Christ!!!!

To see more about them, you can go to you tube and watch this following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXo8qWhzZlo

There you can see a very kind message from parents to their son in Rio, in danish of course!!!! :)

I am sure they will come back, right now they are experience the countryside of Brazil, maybe somewhere in Iguazu Falls!!!!

But they know that they are my danish family, people I will always admire and I am very grateful and honored that they had the chance to experience my tour that I full dedicate myself to show to my people what Rio de Janeiro really looks like!!!!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

IS IT GORGEOUS OR NOT????

For fun, to work or just a simple day in the beach...where do I go???? NITEROI!!!!!!

Well, It is always a great reason to visit Niteroi when friends decide to take one day and have fun.

This time, Marcone and I took the day to spend the day with our great friends Marta, who owns a very trendy PENTHOUSE in Copacabana, the traditional RIOGUESTHOUSE. (http://www.rioguesthouse.com/) and her husband John Muller, the most brazilian aussie fellow that I know! And we visit the most beautiful ocean beach of Niteroi, ITACOATIARA, and we also went to the indian tribe of Guaranis in Camboinhas and end in our great finale, PARQUE DA CIDADE!!!!

I just want to take them to my favorite places in the city, my so dear hidden secrets...

ITACOATIARA WAS OUR FIRST STOP....UNIQUE BEACH - A REAL SURFER'S PARADISE IN BRAZIL.

Rafael Torres Lopes

donrafainrio@yahoo.es