My Holiday Appartment in Rio de Janeiro

My Holiday Apartment in Rio de Janeiro

(Diese Seite gibt es auch auf deutsch.)
(Pode ler ese texto tamben en Portugues.)
Visit as well our guestbook.

In between Sugar Loaf and

the shopping center Rio Sul

passing the coconut stand of Luis and Jamil,

where I refresh myself sometimes,

there is my holiday apartment under avocado and mango trees

with a view on the football field of the blind institute.

Here there live my friend Maria, and her watch dogs Snoopi and Baronesa, who are keeping the apartment much cleaner since they can sneak through the whole in the wall and

"walk" on the terrace.

The entrance of the apartment is leading into the living room.

Via a short stairs you reach an intermediate floor where you find the door to the terrace, and after an other short stairs you find next to each other

a bedroom,

the kitchen, and

the guest room.

(If a couple is visiting Maria, then she sometimes moves into this room and leaves to the guests the room with the large bed.)

Next to the stairs you find as well the toilet and the shower.

(I am showing this picture that you get an idea how simple the shower and toilet is. To make it not so boring I took this picture with Maria in a towel. Unfortunately this picture makes some corrupted minds - not only men - think that Maria was easily available, like some women who are looking for men along Copacabana. She is not! Therefore I have cut a part of the picture.)

With the neighbours I go for walks sometimes, e.g. up the first hill in front of the Sugar Loaf, that you can also climb by cable car, or, as shown here, to the fisher port of Urca and

to the beach Praya Vermelha.

Here the fisher men throw the nets like a lasso. With experience and luck there are sometimes about 20 sardines or anchovies in the net, but I only caught a crab. The later the evening, the better the catch.

The sardines have to be cleaned and then they get on the grill.

But before the sardines we began here with a lot of meat. Luis takes care of the grill and the others supply him with beer. The meat is mostly paid by everone chipping in a few reals.

The music is loud and Serafin beats the rythm on a beer can.

Tatila is selling beer. He has got everything under control, even when he is dancing.

With Jamil however one does not know what is confusing him more. Maria or the beer?

Sometimes I have to dance with two women because there are more women than man in Brazil.

The best dancer is João, but at the moment he does not have time

so I have to dance with all the puppets and Maria is taking pictures of me, always cutting my head.

I revenge myself by showing her here without head at the beach between Leme und Copacabana. This beach can be reached by walking 20 minutes from the appartment.

A lot has changed since I have made this homepage. Maria got married and a son was born. At the moment I do not have any contact with her anymore. Some friends have told me that she is living with her huband in an area nearby called Botafogo and that she has rented this apartment that I own together with her.

My idea to send some guests to Maria giving her an extra income, has never worked really well, especially when I was not anymore able to search for guests. However out neighbour Yvonete has picked up the idea. She now offers a room for guests. In the travel diary of Erich she has been recommended. The following information I leave here, that you can see how the guestroom should have worked, and in case that it will suddenly be needed again. Things can change anytime.

For those who have already been with Maria, there is a guestbook and discussion forum.

Maria likes to receive one or two holiday guests. For Bed&Breakfast she charges the equivalent of €14 (15$) for one person or €22 (24$) for two persons (50% more from December 20 to January 3, and also from 3 days before until 3 days after carneval). Maria is also quite a good cook. If you ask her she will prepare tasty brazilian dishes. If possible Maria will fetch her guest from the airport bus in front of the shopping centre Rio Sul (10 minutes walking distance) and if she hast time she will accompany her guests on their excursions in Rio. If you are interested in making holidays at Maria's place, then you best enquire for availability via email to . In case that does not work you can call Maria directly. She only speaks Portuguese however (3873 0091, handy: 9664 8912).

25-Jan-2007

@dvertisements

Speaking a little bit of Portuguese will help you a lot while travelling in Brazil. If you want, before you travel, learn some Portuguese in an entertaining and economical way, then I recommend you to get a CD of the "Talk Now!" Multimedia CD-Rom Series from EuroTalk interactive (www.eurotalk.co.uk).