RAFA - YOUR TOUR GUIDE AND BEST FRIEND IN RIO

Working as a tour guide in Brazil requires a lot of work and also lots of inspiration...You must be in love with your own land to provide such a good work to every guest you have. I am lucky because I mostly tour in Rio, and I give to my people many options...They really go deep in our daily life and I am very keen on off teh beaten path destinations. The whole idea is never treating my visitors as "tourist", but making them feel that they have a ral friend in RIO they can trust, and I think that my guests are real travellers, so strolling around Rio, in and out of the city, and also taking them to incredible parts of Brazil such as IGUAZU FALLS, AMAZON FOREST AND THE UNKNOWN BEACHES AND SANDDUNES LAKES OF MARANHÃO is really easy.

This blog is a cool way to get to know more about my work, and more about my personality...I will report many different situations, and I will write about places I usually make my tours. But if you want to be in touch directly with me, please feel free to write to my personal email address which is donrafainrio@yahoo.es

MY BIGGEST PASSION IN LIFE IS MY WORK. I am an independent tour guide, and believe me I put my heart in my work, I really love what I do, it is always a special moment being with so many different people, and show them the best of my land, making some dreams possible..this is the great joy of my profession. I always focus on the soul of Rio, when my guests choose Rio as a destination...I start to think where I personally like to go, where I personally like going when I want to have fun, what I like to eat, where I will find the people I want to be with, and the places where I simply meet with myself..these places should be quiet, unique, spectacular with lots of natural beauty.

Sure that coming to Rio for the first time there are places that WE MUST SEE, and I totally agree with the tradicional places mentioned in travel books. We have some strategic places where you can go and understand the whole city, there are places that you really have to go in order to tell others that you have been to...

I am completely away from GRINGO PLACES... I take my people to places that you will never find in travelogs..I make my people being in touch with real native people...My tours has a very strong “native profile”, if you know what I mean... I am the sort of a guide who hates talking in the microphone in a bus filled with foreigners dressing flowers shirts expecting when and where they will find the first monkey in the street...you will never see myself saying: COPACABANA IN THE LEFT AND SUGAR LOAF IN THE RIGHT...I will NEVER take my guest to places where I know it is obvious tourist traps...If the stores of Sugar Loaf or Corcovado need me to take my guests there, they will be done for...

I like doing what my guests want, and I always direct them to genuine and unique places, either for visiting or simply go shopping. I want to make any person feel secure that in Rio they do have a friend and someone they can always count on. And other passions that I have...well not so many, but being with the person I love always near is everything I long for...I also love meeting my friends and take my car and go to any place just to have a good time!

LIFE IS EASY AND I REFUSE TO MAKE IT COMPLICATED!