BEMVINDOS AT CASA 48!
La Casa 48 is a 7 bedroom guest house located on the heights of the charming colonial and bohemian district of Santa Teresa , we are at the entrance of a small, quiet and family favela, the " Pereirão ". You will enjoy atypical and comfortable accommodation, ideal for exploring the different worlds of our beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro . Be part of this breathtaking fram, alongside the Sugar Loaf, Guanabara Bay and the Flamengo and Botafogo districts!
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--------- OUR TEAM
Passionate about this fascinating country, we are French, Brazilian and Venezuelan who have been living in Rio de Janeiro for several years. All the staff of Casa 48 are waiting for you to share this warm guest house with you and make you experience the energy of Rio!
DISCOVER A UNIQUE CITY IN THE WORLD
The marvelous natural site of the "River of January" (Rio de Janeiro) was discovered on the 1st of January 1502 by Portuguese navigators, but it was only on 1st of march that " São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro " is oficialy founded by Estácio de Sá. Second capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960, the Carioca agglomeration today has approximately 10 millions of inhabitants and remains the great showcase of this vast country. The beauty and magic of the geographical site cannot leave you indifferent : dozens of green hills overlap and plunge into the waters of Guanabara Bay or the Atlantic Ocean, from beaches to generous curves soar over several kilometres,
modern and colonial architecture interferes in this picture without dominating nature, as for the favelas, they appear here and there, when the slopes of the hills allow them to …!
Rio is much more than the unmissable beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, or the sublime viewpoints from the hill of Corcovado and Sugar Loaf… Its different worlds make it a city full of striking contrasts. As for its festive life, it is not a myth! The fantastic Carnival, the true apotheosis of the party and the joy of living, does not have to make shadow of the intoxicating evenings that Rio experiences throughout the year, whether to the rhythms of samba, forro, funk, maracatu, or MPB (Brazilian Popular Music).
Finally, Rio is also and above all a people with contagious positive energy, unlimited kindness and warmth : the Cariocas are proud of their city, of their quality of life, their 4 major football clubs and the Maracana stadium, their 40km of beaches, their cultural richness, and this exuberant nature! There are a myriad of sites to explore, on foot, by tram, by bike, by cable car... You can spend a week in Rio with a different program every day, in addition to your lazy moments at the beach and more. sunsets accompanied by a good caipirinha. Rio is a art of living, and you will begin to understand it with us, at Casa 48!
SANTA TERESA
The hill of Santa Teresa was the bourgeois neighborhood in the last century. Living on the heights enabled cooler air and a breeze that chased away mosquitoes. In addition, this district with winding cobbled streets is close to the Centro, the business center, easily reached with the famous yellow tram, the Bonde, great pride of the inhabitants (see below). So you will appreciate pretty colorful houses with eclectic colonial architecture, unique to Rio. In the 50s and 60s, the neighborhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema became fashionable, the inhabitants of Santa moved…
bohemian district,
artistic and
colonial
When the real estate market started to collapse, a new population arrived, artists and foreigners are beginning to invest in the colonial houses, giving a new bohemian flavor to this singular district, reminiscent of Lisbon's Bairro Alto...
the BONDE ,
the last traditional tram in circulation on the continent
The famous yellow tramway, a true emblem of the district, appeared at the end of the 19th century, it very quickly took the Lapa aqueduct to reach the Center. Composed of 10 4-seater benches, the tram was completely open, encouraging exchanges and conviviality between passengers. The tram was also a popular means of transport because it allowed the less fortunate to move at a lower cost, it indeed reached the favelas on the heights of the district and circulated from 6 am to 9.30 pm. Its great historical characteristic was its step on the sides on which one could travel for free by holding on to the handrail, and many seasoned travellers ran after it to take it on the fly... a real time travel !
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But this good old Bonde required maintenance and handling that were never a priority for the authorities. La tragédie annoncée fini par avoir lieu en août 2011, le Bonde perd ses freins dans une descente, déraille et crashes against a wall. The terrible toll is 50 injured and 6 victims, including Nelson , the most experienced driver, a neighborhood hero in spite of himself. This accident marks the end of the original Bonde made of wood and fully mechanical.
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After several years of intense work, the Bonde are once again circulating in complete safety. If they look identical, they are now made of fiberglass, equipped with the latest driving technologies, and a bar is placed on the sides, and the step retracts just before the start..! We are delighted to see him back on track, proudly walking the neighborhood climbs even if we have a great Saudade of our old tram, all rickety and happy. You will find that it is honored by the artists of the district including our great Getulio, you will also find everywhere the image of the tram with a tear, recalling the victims of the accident of 2011.
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The fare is 20 reais for the round trip during the day, you can pay by card or cash at the final station in the city center, it runs approximately every 20 minutes and the stop is 80 meters from Casa 48 on the main street, rua Almirante Alexandrino.
By staying in Santa Teresa for Carnival, believe us, you are choosing the neighborhood that sees the best Blocos of the city as Besame Mucho, Ceu na Terra, Me Enterra na Quarta … A Bloco is a kind of fanfare in the form of a marching band, which plays popular and catchy songs. These street parties are free, there are about 50 blocos per day during carnival …
In Santa Teresa, everyone plays the game and comes disguised with crazy and creative costumes: be ready! The people who go up the hill of Santa are the most motivated, especially when it comes to the bloco Ceú Na Terra which starts the Saturday at … 7am !
THE CARNIVAL in SANTA TERESA
Lapa, the Carioca nightlife district
Mecca of nightlife since the 1930s when casinos and cabarets were still legion in Brazil, Lapa is located at the foot of the hill of Santa Teresa, 10 minutes from Casa 48. The symbol of the district is its aqueduct of 42 arches pipes that carried spring water from the Tijuca forest to the city center. It was transformed into a viaduct for the tramway (Bonde) in 1896.
There are all kinds of clubs in Lapa, for all tastes and all budgets, attracting an eclectic crowd, especially on weekends when you can enjoy samba, forro, rock or even Brazilian funk concerts. This is undoubtedly the most lively place in Rio to party in Rio, and this all year round, especially from Thursday to Saturday evening.
The PEREIRÃO favela
Casa 48 is located at the entrance of a small favela, called the “ Pereirão ”, it has about 2500 inhabitants. The upper part of the favela is part of the Santa Teresa district, while the lower part takes you directly to the Laranjeiras and Flamengo districts where you can take the metro (Largo do Machado station). Our access is privileged because the door of the house is located 100 meters from the main street of Santa Teresa, rua Almirante Alexandrino, where the various urban transport drops you off (bus, taxis, Uber, tramway…) So don't worry, you have just about twenty steps before reaching the door of Casa 48! Here is the access ramp:
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Did you say "favela"?!
There are 950 more or less large favelas in Rio, they include 1/4 of the inhabitants, or about 1.5 million people. The favela is an invasion of public land, its constructions are therefore irregular and do not benefit from any official document. However, the houses have access to water and electricity and they are all built by the inhabitants themselves with solid materials: bricks, cement, etc. The favelas were mainly born in the 40s and 50s, when many Brazilians fled the drought and misery of the North, Nordeste and the countryside. When they arrived in Rio, there was no social housing provided to accommodate them. They then appropriated the available land, namely these inaccessible areas on the sides of the hills, as these are omnipresent in Rio, we find everywhere this famous contrast between wealthy and poor people who live side by side. As they are on the hills, the favelas often enjoy the most beautiful views of the city, the forest, the ocean! Like Casa 48!
The vast majority of the inhabitants work, because of a lack of access to quality education, the jobs are often unskilled (building guardians, cleaning women, construction workers, bus drivers, vendors on the beach etc). It's kind of Rio's little hands, the ones that keep the city going!
It should be noted that samba was born in the favelas and that all the major samba schools that parade at the Sambadrome during Carnival come from the favelas of Rio and its suburbs. Without favelas, no greatest spectacle in the world!
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Despite the bad images conveyed by the media, favelas are not necessarily lawless areas, prejudices and shortcuts die hard! Rather, it is a unique, dynamic universe, full of life and human warmth. In the case of Pereirão, you are immersed in the friendly atmosphere of a village right in the center of the big city.
We often find beautiful social and cultural projects in the favelas, here at Pereirão we support that of Favela Brass by Tom Ashe, this Englishman teaches music for free to children of the favela who form a superb fanfare, or the astonishing artistic project du Projeto Morrinho , it is a giant model in colored bricks representing the universe of the favelas of Rio, this unique installation dates from 1997 and the ex-teenagers continue to take care of it. We are happy to organize your visit.
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OUR SELECTION OF MOVIES in RIO and BRAZIL
MOVIES
- the cartoons RIO and RIO 2, 20th Century Fox (2011)
Blu, a domestic arara who lives in the United States will discover the joys of the sweetness of life in Rio! We find the beautiful Carioca clichés: life on the beach, the carnival, the atmosphere of the favelas, the fever around football, the beautiful fauna and flora of the Tijuca forest... It's light and fun, and that makes you want to take your plane ticket as soon as the film ends! The second installment sees the band travel and settle in the Amazon.
- Trope de Elite 1 et 2, by José Padilha with Wagner Moura, (2008 and 2012)a
With Captain Nascimento of BOPE, this elite intervention unit called upon as a last resort to manage the most inextricable situations in the violent favelas of Rio at the hands of drug traffickers, you discover the dark side of the marvelous city, another reality that unfortunately thousands of Cariocas suffer. This shocking film explains the relationships between the actors of the drug trade: the corrupt police, the narcos, the consumers and therefore the members of the BOPE. The second part focuses more on the problem of the milicias, these Brazilian-style mafias which are even more dangerous and which involve politicians, business leaders, reformed soldiers... We advise you to watch these two excellent films after your stay in Rio!
- Central do Brasil by Walter Salles, with Fernanda Montenegro (1998)
You go from Rio to the Sertão of Nordeste with the adventure of the ex-teacher Dora and the young Josué, you travel through the dark realities of Brazilian society: illiteracy, abandoned children, banditry, organ trafficking, violence... A poignant film that nevertheless ends on a glimmer of hope.
- The City of God by Fernando Mereilles (2002)
Through the young Buscapé, we accompany the evolution of the City of God, this district created by the authorities in the 1960s to displace the inhabitants of a favela in the South Zone. This majestic film with an exceptional soundtrack plunges us into the complex life of young people in the difficult neighborhoods of Rio.
- Orfeu Negro by Marcel Camus (1959, Palme d'Or)
This film is an adaptation of a play by Vinícius de Moraes , Orfeu da Conceição, inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The scene is in the middle of the Rio carnival, we are transported by the notes of samba and bossa nova as well as by the jubilation of the crowd throughout the film, vibrant! Note that the Serafina favela is that of Babilônia located in Leme, and that the distribution exclusively with black actors is a great first which has moved the lines, especially in the United States, the film is awarded at the Oscars, while we are still in the midst of the years of racial segregation.
- Aquarius by Kleber Mendonça Filho with Sonia Braga (2016)
A fine critique of society via the portrait of Clara, in her sixties, who refuses to leave her apartment. The beautiful building from the 1940s located on the seafront in Recife (avenida Boa Viagem) is promised to major builders. A beautiful story of resistance with there too, a superb soundtrack and soft permanbucanos accents that warm the heart!
- Bacurau, by Kleber Mendonça Filho with Sonia Braga (2019, Jury Prize at Cannes)
A science fiction thriller set in the arid Sert ão , this film is a sharp criticism of contemporary Brazil, even a work of resistance to the ideologies advocated by Bolsonaro. This fantastic western describes a near future that might not be so far away given current events...
-------------------- SEEN ON TV!
On the sidelines of major sporting events (World Cup 2014, Olympics 2016), several journalists have produced reports on Casa 48:
Até logo !
