Carlos was very kind and extremely helpful with informations in our email exchanges. He always replied in a way which gave us the feeling of being very welcome and of having his support if needed. I regret that in the end it was not possible to meet personally. I am sure it would have been a pleasure to meet him and Marga.
The apartment is a wondeful, an incredibly pieceful and quiet place with a view into nature (birds flying around in the early morning) on the last floor of a building in the middle of the busy life of Copacabana. The immediate neighbourhood (across the street into the small streets) is a very nice part of Copacabana, with beautiful trees in the street, interesting small shops of all kinds and many places to eat or to drink a juice. A lot to see there if you wish to get a feeling for the kind of life in this part of the city. In only a few minutes walk (directly through the small street in front of the building across the street) one gets to the beach. Public transportation (metro) is near and many taxis pass by all the time. Only one warning: when you leave and need to get a taxi to the International Airport go with a lot of time in advance or book in advance: many taxi drivers refute to go to the International Airport (for reasons I now understand: it might take them hours to get back and not every taxi driver has the 'right' to take people at the airport). Also, there appears to be a serious problem about traffic in the afternoon and early evening between Center and Airport (street work on the way). (This problem is of course not specific to the place of Carlos and Marga! it is a general 'Rio-problem' right now in 2015).
We had a great time in the apartment and would love to go back there at some time in the future! One more info: there are a lot of very interesting and beautiful books in different languages in the apartment and in particular huge beautiful 'picture books' (Art/ landscapes/ Culture). If you need to stay at home, you will have a lot of interesting things to discover!