Tales from a special guide
Geetika Jain, Client.
I did not get a chance to mourn the fact that at the last minute my friend was not able to join me for our girlie trip to Rio. Fabio was there at the airport, and for the next three days, I explored the Cidade Maravilhosa (marvellous city) with a larger than life Carioca (resident of Rio) who laughingly calls himself a Carioca Maravilhoso. Fabio is a writer, artist, musician, gourmand, carnavalesco and thinker all in one, who unfurls his city with unabated relish, embellishing each conversation with the most amusing anecdotes.
When asked if he was ever held up, he said, "It was the only time I had to translate a robbery. An American man and his daughters insisted on stopping the car just outside Rio to look at the view, despite my warning, when two boys drew up in their car with guns. Give him your watch, I said. He wants to know what brand it is and how much it costs in New York. Pass him your wallet." "Minutes later, in the safety of the police station, the two girls were quivering with excitement as they chatted with each other. ‘Oh, my god, that was my first mugging!' ‘My guy had a big gun'. ‘Mine's was bigger, and he was shaking. His gun could have gone off'"
Fabio educated and entertained me through all the usual sights, and then there were the places that breeze-in tourists rarely get to experience...favourite eateries of the locals like Café de Arnaud in Santa Teresa, the hip nightclubs of Lapa, samba classes where the locals practised, and the exact posts on the beach for people watching. We wandered through the favelas and sampled every fruit juice known to the Yanomami.
Fabio said he guides exclusively for cazenove+loyd. Having met him, I can confidently stride off to any destination when the mood strikes, knowing that I will be thrown a life-line at the other end, carefully hand picked by cazenove+loyd.
