GUESTS OF THE MONTH (January 09)

Bruno & Sabrina Romano take the award of Castelinho38 guests of the month of January 2009.
The couple is coming from Trieste, and decided to stay with us during 2 weeks in order to know the city of Rio and all its secrets hidden corners, beaches and shops.
Born in Salerno, Bruno is a typical italian always in a good and funny mood, enjoying the summer time and hot days of RIO. Bruno is a volleyball lover and spent most of his days in Ipanema Beach. Maracana stadium was also one of the highlight of his trip.


Sabrina fell in love with all different kind of Havaianas shoes, the dress shops and the precious stones of H. Stern. Her passion here at C38 is our female dog Samba, together they are playing around all the time. They have been very much at home since the first days and are mainly using public transport to go around, they ve strongly recommended to have a bus trip, as bus drivers seem to play Ayrton Senna in a F1 race against other buses.
Bruno and Sabrina have been so nice in taking with them Valentina, just arrived from Trieste as well and show her the city and its fanny parts.

Paraty

One of the top destination not too far from Castelinho38, is the colonial village of Paraty, at just 4 hours by bus. Paraty was founded formally as a town by portuguese colonizers in 1667, After the discovery of the world's richest gold mines in 1696 in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Paraty became an export port for gold to Rio de Janeiro and from there on to Portugal. The ensuing gold rush led to the construction of the "Caminho do Ouro" or "Gold Trail", a 1200 kilometer road, paved in steep areas with large stones.

Paraty is known for the cobblestone-paved streets throughout the Historic Center District. No cars or trucks are allowed in this part of town. Only foot traffic or bicycles. Horses and carts are a very common sight in Paraty and are frequently used all around the city. Paraty has been able to maintain many of its historic buildings. Much of the architecture of the city has not changed for 250 years or more.


here are many musical and cultural events, the most prominent of which is the FLIP, International Literary Festival of Paraty. The town is also known for its local festivals on Catholic holy dates, such as the Feast of the Holy Ghost.

There are also many colorful, colonial houses (refurbished in most cases), many of which have been transformed into shops, pousadas, restaurants and bars. Paraty has become a popular tourist area in recent years, renowned for the beauty of the town and the coast and mountains in the region.

The town is located on the Bay of Ilha Grande, which is dotted with many tropical islands. Rising up some 1,000 meters behind the town are the tropical forests, mountains, and waterfalls. Paraty is surrounded by many Nature Parks including Serra da Bocaina National Park, the Park Reserve of Joatinga and the Environmentally Protected Area of Cairuçu, where the village of Trindade is located.

Empretecos no C38

No sabado passado, 17 de Janeiro, o Castelinho38 teve a honra de receber o primeiro encontro dos empresarios que se formaram em Dezembro 08, no seminario Empretec, no centro do Rio.
O curso e organizado pelo SEBRAE e foi desenvolvido nos anos 60 pela ONU atravez de uma grande pesquisa sobre as carateristicas empreendedoras de sucesso.


O evento foi devidamente organizado pela Tathiana Lopes, responsavel da empresa Cardapio de Ideias, os convidados curtiram um churrasco tipico do verao carioca, e poderam trocar ideias e confraternizar bastante, aproveitando tambem para conhecer as estruturas do C38.


Para o C38 foi a melhor maneira de abrir seus eventos para o 2009, para a turma de empresarios foi uma otima oportunidade para demostrar seus comprometimento a implementar os aprendizados do seminario. Ficou marcado um novo encontro no dia 4 de fevereiro, em local ainda a ser decidido. Sucesso para todos!!

Delft University girls team

Castelinho38 had the honor to host here last week 13 representatives of the University of Delft, Holland.

The girls are students from different areas, such as architecture, medicine, design and engineering that from some years they have saved 40 Euros a month in order to take this trip in Brazil.

The Ladies have travelled in Sao Paulo, Pantanal, where they have been so lucky to see a jaguar in its natural habitat, than Paraty at our friends Vilavolta 

They also stopped in Ilha Grande and Buzios, but in Rio they really felt like princesses in our little castle.

Rose Anne, Annetje and Liz had the chance to extend their stay in Rio and we wanted to thank them for their preference to stay at C38 again. Up Holland!!

"Best hosts"

As promised in previous posts we are trying to give more & more space in this blog to our guests, as without them we won t exist. So here some beautiful pictures taken by Simon & Chloe, who spent the New Years Eve with us. During their 3 months trip in South America Simon and Chloe got engaged, we d like to sent our warmest congratulation and wishes of an happy life together.



Here s what they wrote to us some days ago:
"This is just a quick e-mail to say 'thank you' so much for our stay in Rio. We had such a wonderful time thanks to your welcoming and organised selves. You were the best hosts of our trip. It was a brilliant finale for our 3 month adventure. We are now back in the UK and freezing our tans off...it is minus 10 here."

Sun & Shadow

After the typical Rainy days of the Summer in Rio, sun is shinning back on Castelinho38, Santa Teresa - Rio and all its guests are happier now. Beaches are crowded and all touristic attractions with long queues, looks like this year everybody wants to be HERE.

The sun in summer time is really hot during the peak hours and therefore you need to look for some shadow and breeze to cool down the temperature.

With the recent restructure of the terrace, the outside area is much bigger and nicer offering our guest all the comfort and coolness they might need.


When we hear about the cold winter that is hitting Europe and the North Emisphere, we are sending the latest flower of our garden to you all who are freezing now. Summertime and the living is easy..

First Rain

As clouds gather over Rio de Janeiro and Castelinho38, for the first rainy days of the years, our guests are leaving towards sunnier destinations to finish their holidays. C38 has been fully booked since xmas and many nice people has share their last days of 2008 and the first days of the new year with us.


As promised, this year posts will priviledge the GUESTS and we d like to start with mentioning an ancient guest of 2 years ago, Paolo Giordino from Trieste. Paolo has found more than a nice hotel here, and after several returns ,has now taken the big decision . He has just moved to live here after a long distance romance with Isabele, our friend and neighbour of Santa Teresa. Welcome Paolo!!


The other come back is a special one, Martina Otto our first Guest of the month ( october 07 ) has decided to give herself and her partner Stefan a great Brazilian holiday to start 2009 with the right foot. They have choosen C38 as HQ, while they ll be travelling south and north of the country, next stop Florianopolis. Thanks Martina for the preference!


And last but not least our newest member at C38, Fernanda , who has now officially accepted her duties heading the Accounting Dept. and our Interior Desinger. She shows in the picture that she is ready to celebrate till 6002!! Long life to the queen..

New year new life

Happy New Year to all of us. After the parties and the commemorations we are getting ready to rock in this 2009. As often happens new year -new life, this is at least the intention of our dearest friend ALICE and FABIO.

Alice left C38 to start her own business and help a friend with PR in a CLub in Lapa, we ll miss her always and so our guests. Fortunately the new girl Talise, is as good and as nice as Alice, so the Front Desk will not suffer too much.


On the other hand Fabio, our grand Manager is say goodbye to us after almost 2 years in the house. Thanks for everything Fabio, you are now family and the door is always open. Good luck for your future plans of travelling and working abroad.
New life to everybody in 2009!!