March 11, 2025

RIO DE JANEIRO - DAY 3 - VILA CANOAS FAVELA TOUR

Before we entered the next Favela, we saw the eeriest of cloud formation around Sugar Loaf Mountain in distance.

Our group on terrace within Vila Canoas Favela in the Sao Conrado neighborhood. Canoas is a much smaller favela and in 2009 was chosen as a municipal pilot project to contain the disorderly growth of favelas, with the height limited to three floors.In 2011 they revised to 5 floors due to high real estate needs. Politicians promise improvements like open shared spaces, but deliver little once elected. Truly just come to favelas looking for large number of voters pre election. One rare small courtyard here.

Favela visit finished at the community center, that our tour dollars help fund. We got to meet some of the school children and got a song and dance presentation from the indigenous tribe members, with an opportunity to see and buy their custom art works.

By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.