Gilcelia and her family made me feel most welcome. They went out of their way to make sure I had everything I needed. After some small issue with the internet on my phone upon arrival, even the neighbours were involved in trying remedy the problem. The neighbourhood is really vibrant, friendly and has a great sense of community.
I was only booked for three nights and ended up staying for more than a week due to their kindness.
Gilcelia would bring coffee and a sandwich every morning and leave it outside the room...a nice surprise to wake up to! I would even come back to find fruit and fresh juice in the fridge.
The room was very clean, neat and tidy. The air-con was fantastic. Very efficient. A short blast of it would soon cool the hot Rio summer air. Embarrassingly i left it on one day when out at the beach. Gilcelia was very understanding. I was incredibly apologetic seeing as the cost of electricity in Brasil is very high.
She speaks reasonably good English and I am in the early learning stages of speaking portuguese(albeit far from competent) but we managed to work most things out between us in the end.
The day I left Gilcelia lent me an umbrella as it was raining. I was really glad that she did so because it means I have a reason to return and say hello...get a catch up with them!