UNUSUAL SITUATIONS IN A TOUR WITH RAFA

I love to explore the unusual, I really enjoy to take my guests to unique places and I really appreciate the contact between my own people and my guests. Tours for me are not only visiting places, my tours gives you local experiences!!!

Like finding a boat's wrecage in a visit to our fishing village Jurujuba...a cool chance for you to experience local life and great people watching in a place where you will feel UNIQUE.

Plastic Tours are not for me...my tours have to give you laughs, knowledge and great memories!!!

The tours you will never see myself in a microphone ORDERING you to see RIGHT OR LEFT. In my tours you will have to prepare your eyes and get your legs prepared!!!

Goats in the street in a urban center such as Rio??? POSSIBLE!!!! There is an amazing urban fauna everywhere we go in Rio, but do not start thinking that in your first day in Rio you will see monkeys and snakes in the streets, eh??? We have seen horses...pigs...and in the forests please do read my other postings so you will see beautiful birds and some monkeys as well!!!

We have to say to our people how important their work is...I say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the city cleaners for them to keep the city where I work clean and in order for you to go all around. And NOOOOO, they are not american prisoners...this group was working in our SAMBA PARADE ARENA.

So you will also see Copacabana Beach, Ipanema, the famous Christ, our Sugar Loaf (maybe) and everything you have planned. But be absolutely prepared to be be surprised!!! Be prepare to see great places that you will not see in any travel books...Get used with names like Tiririca, Itacoatiara, Feira do Nordeste, Monarchy in Brazil...things that you will think it is odd, but in the end it will be the best part of your trip!!!

I am here to show you a very different Rio. You will find in Rio de Janeiro someone much more than a tour guide, you will find a friend...MYSELF!!! Or friends...like Marcone, Françoise, Suzana, Diana and more people from my crew!!!

COME TO RIO!!!! And if you are reading my posting for the first time...GOOOOOO and spread the news!!! Tell to all your friends that if they ever think about coming to Brazil (even Obama came!!!) they will find someone who will show everywhere with crazy passion!!!!

Thank you very much,

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

WONDERFUL FRIENDS FROM HOUSTON

That is true...Again, Texas in my life!!! It seems that I am getting famous there...and thanks God I have more friends from this giant and diverse State of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

YES....Texas, and it sent one MAGNIFICENT COUPLE, Brooke and Nathan...She came with big expectations about this new land called Rio de Janeiro, she was ready for vacations!!! He came for business and he was very upset because he would never have time to see Rio properly...

But we change his mind, and Nathan joined us in the second day and we had a blast!!!!

When there is love, everything turns to be way better than everything!!! :) So for me it was easy to please my friends...But Rio does it alone and very well...The beauty of Rio is the same of Love's Beauty...So it is easy to understand the positive vibe of the city...it is easy to know that Rio is a delicious place to rest and see new things!!!

RIO IS HAPPINESS and we all know about that!!!!

How can you make a city boy into a Tarzan...I think we made it!!! :))))))) The contact with nature in Rio is obvious and we all get involved!!!

Specially myself...I always say that I am a mix of Jacques Cousteau and Charles Darwin!!!

My tours are also a trip to our past and our traditions...so sitting in the old streets of Centro with great things just to nibble some brazilian SALGADOS and having the most delicious beer in the country (BOHEMIA) is something people do for ages!!!! And this is what my guests will have to experience in every moment they are strolling around the city!

This is part of our walking tour in the soul of Rio, in places where Rio started, in the narrow streets of Arco dos Telles.

The city has to be appreciated from the top...and on the top of Dona Marta Hill we had a blast...This is where great pictures can be taken with the majestic Sugar Loaf in the background! Mirante Dona Marta is the plan B when Christ is covered by the clouds!

The famous angel pictures!!!! :) Ohhhhhhhh this time Brooke had a blast in Rio, she shown the World her true faces!!! hahahahaha :) We were at the old church of Candelaria, great sample of our spanish and portuguese barroc.

Always wonderful to know where Rio de Janeiro started...Our very impressive Monastery São Bento...where the great boom of gold in Brazil, and many incredible churches were built in that time..and I am talking about 1576!!!!

Tradition and religion are still kept and I proudly show my guests some secrets that very few visitors know!!!

My friends, great friends, Brooke and Nathan are always welcome in a city that will be forever their homes outside Texas!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH,

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

LOTS OF RAIN AND LOTS OF FUN - WITH A MALTESE CREW WE CAN DO EVERYTHING

When you are travelling and with a short time in the city you have to see everything no matter what...This thursday the weather was not so friendly so Rio shown its winter profile. YES, WE DO HAVE WINTER...but it is never cold as you are used to see specially if you live in North America or Europe. But rain in Rio does not last long...

I am still with my maltese friends trying to give them the best experience in Rio ever!!!

But this is to tell you that YES WE CAN HAVE FUN IN RIO WHEN IT RAINS.

We started our rainy day at the Botanical Gardens and going to this quiet spot of Rio is always a chance to learn more about our Nature, to see some rare plants from all over Brazil and also some other countries and a fantastic chance to see some amazing birds!

Samuel and Annis were incredibly happy to see one of our most beautiful places...a couple in honey moon and so many nature all around, that's all they need to experience the romantic side of Rio.

And by the way I am very proud to be their friends!

By the way, everytime I go to a place where the Nature reigns, I always remember a poem written by Jeam Kellam, she is a poet from Viriginia, I am sure you never heard about her, but once she wrote:

A midnight mist does rise
Against the starry skies
But all is unseen
Under jungle canopy
And silent are my cries
Another night does fall
And gives life to things that crawl
Beneath my feetAnd then retreat
Nothing I can do at all
A maze gets rearranged
Everything seems changed
I could run and run
But until there's sun
I need to be restrained
A forest in disguise
A million places to hide
If I were small
Or ten feet tall
But nothing in my size
The feeling of being chased
Leaves a bitter
A jungle that has no sympathy
For those without eympathy
Until dawn's saving grace....

Beutiful, eh??? Anyway, I am so inspiring this morning, heheheh :))))




I gave John the cool opportunity to have a jungle picture under the weird palms of Misiones, the roots remind thick anacondas, and nothing can be more tropical than this interesting species. John is very much into Nature and he was so happy to see so many beauties all around and it was a great joy for me to be able to show our green profile of Rio de Janeiro.

The living room was amazing but the sofa not so comfortable, that was Andrew in the lake that we crated to give people an idea about the Amazon ecosystem, visiting the Gardens will make you understand more about our vegetation and wild places! it is always nice a visit to the Botanical Gardens before visiting the incredible variety of wilderness in Brazil. That is why Rio is really the gateway of the country!

After a visit to the Jardim Botanico we headed West to visit our most unknown coast with a very cool (literally) stop in the beach of Recreio, it is an absolutely local place, away from the very touristy side of Rio which is also very vibrant and interesting. We had a lovely time there watching the huge waves. Recreio is the natural continuation of another beach that we already visited, Barra da Tijuca!

Samuel and Annis can say that they visited some unique places in Rio de Janeiro.

Andrea also enjoyed to see the far ending mountains of the city, very far away from Copacabana, this great member of Malta's island is completely amazed about Rio and he knows he will come back over and over again.

Andrew and the ISLAND OF PONTAL in Recreio Beach, visiting this place you will see many wonderful views of one place that very few people can reach. In sunny days, this is the favorite beach of Cariocas, specially the ones who live quite far from the main places of Rio. Actually this is one of the beaches in Rio that I love visiting.

Well, so you can see, if you are in the mood to see new things, you can visit Rio under the rain...just bring a rain jacket and a brolly (umbrella) and let's have fun!!!

We also stopped for lunch at the delicious and fantastic local restaurant, A MINEIRA...

Only visiting this restaurant is a BIG reason for us to explore Rio de Janeiro when it rains!!!

More about my maltese groups you can find by visiting www.youjustliveonce.com

This site is all organized by my friend and great tour operator in Europe, John Paul Scicluna, he can think about an amazing trip in Brazil specially for you and you will have the chance to join such a fantastic adventure in Brazil that include other states! I highly recommend his services in Europe!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

BRAZILIAN ART IN COPACABANA - A HUMAN PROFILE

It is absolutely fantastic and amazing the african influence in our culture. Thanks for that our food ios very rich, it is a mix of various cultures that turns the brazilian food one of the most interesting gastronomy in the World. But I am not here to talk about food today!!!



But the afro presence can also be expressed in our paintings...Some of the paintings shows aspects of native tribes in Africa and some others simply show what they call "black beauty".



Brazil, no doubt, is very proud about our african heritage. Our history with Africa comes from the very early years of our portuguese Colonization and Africa took a great part of what we are know...are free and united country!

It is art that I want to give you some ideas...many guests that I have always ask where they can buy good local art. I am also interested in unknown artists and one of the places where you can see and buy incredible work from our brazilian art is in the Fort of Copacabana. There are always some temporary exibihitions (is that the right spelling???) with incredible paintings.

We had famous painters like Portinari, Di Cavalcanti, Tarsila do Amaral, very popular people with spectacular work, but we also have endless beautiful work of art made by people that we have never hear.

I am always interested by local art, specially from every region of Brazil, our amazon is simply incredible; and also haitian art and asian art. I am not a collector, but humbly speaking I am a good observer and I am happy to share with you what I found in my short brazilian travels!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es