Lucio's place is great -- spotless, excellently designed, excellent location, value and safety. It's in an awesome, authentic local neighborhood filled with street fairs, vendors, restaurants, and bars that real cariocas frequent. It's a half block from Flamengo beach and the beautiful Aterro Do Flamengo city park. It's 2 minutes from the subway at Largo do Machado, and the plaza there which has awesome vendors on weekend selling typical food and artwork. There's great shopping nearby where I picked up clothes from trendy Rio labels, and it's 5 minutes from Sao Salvador, which is a local plaza that everybody just goes to and hangs out and drinks at night. At the same time, it's a completely quiet apartment so you can get great sleep. The only downside is the window looks out into space between large buildings, so no view to speak of. But you can't have a better location if you're looking for something convenient to everything, in a cool, real, non-tourist trap neighborhood, in a nice building with 24 hour security. Communication was excellent -- I had to book at the extreme last minute but Lucio contacted me immediately and made sure I could check in immediately as well.