Inia is a fabulous host. She's a native carioca who can tell you Rio's best kept secrets. The B&B is spacious with panoramic windows. Lots of fresh flowers and plants. It's very relaxing. The room is very clean and the bed very comfortable as well. I stayed at the suite with panoramic windows overlooking the tree-lined street below. You can open it to let in the breeze. It's centrally located. You can walk practically anywhere from the B&B. Public transportation is also close by. I love walking in Ipanema and Copacabana beach early morning and late afternoon or early evening. I could still smell the ocean. You have to be in Ipanema on a Sunday morning. It's when the locals congregate to stroll along the promenade. Breakfast is wonderful. I can still smell and taste it. Inia buys bread every morning from a lady who sells them out of her car just in front of the B&B. It's crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. She also serves lots of fresh fruit (different varieties) and makes fresh fruit juices everyday some of them exotic (to me) like aserola juice which I really like. At one time Inia invited me to go with her to watch a live Samba music performance at a bar in downtown Rio and join her friend Maria Pompeu (I didn't know she's an actress and she also owns a B&B in Copacabana). I had...Inia is a fabulous host. She's a native carioca who can tell you Rio's best kept secrets.

The B&B is spacious with panoramic windows. Lots of fresh flowers and plants. It's very relaxing. The room is very clean and the bed very comfortable as well. I stayed at the suite with panoramic windows overlooking the tree-lined street below. You can open it to let in the breeze.

It's centrally located. You can walk practically anywhere from the B&B. Public transportation is also close by. I love walking in Ipanema and Copacabana beach early morning and late afternoon or early evening. I could still smell the ocean. You have to be in Ipanema on a Sunday morning. It's when the locals congregate to stroll along the promenade.

Breakfast is wonderful. I can still smell and taste it. Inia buys bread every morning from a lady who sells them out of her car just in front of the B&B. It's crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. She also serves lots of fresh fruit (different varieties) and makes fresh fruit juices everyday some of them exotic (to me) like aserola juice which I really like.

At one time Inia invited me to go with her to watch a live Samba music performance at a bar in downtown Rio and join her friend Maria Pompeu (I didn't know she's an actress and she also owns a B&B in Copacabana). I had a great time. We ate feijoada - brazil's national dish. It taste good to me but Inia said it's just OK. I can't argue with an expert.

Another time she invited me to join her for dinner with some of her friends at an Italian restaurant in Copacabana. The food is very good and the view is fantastic.

Inia also took me to Restaurante Bira located in Barra de Guaratiba which is a small fishing village south of Rio. We ate moqueca which was very delicious. I had a drink called Batida de Coco and (I think) I had another drink called Caipirinha de Maracuja. It's wonderful. En route to this restaurant we stop by at Praia de Grumari. It's a very beautiful beach. On our way back we visited this little folk art museum called Casa do Pontal. It's very interesting and also very nice. It contains folk art from all over Brazil.

I also have to thank the taxi driver who works with Inia. His name is Jorge Leao Brasil Junior. He speaks good English and is very nice. He picked me up from and took me to the airport. I hired him to take me for a day trip in Petropolis as well as Teresopolis. We visited the former Summer Palace of the Brazilian royal family as...More