We really liked Paloma’s place. She was always there when we had questions and the place was really nice and clean. Loved the garden and the place felt safe. It was also located in a very nice street with good bars and a breakfast restaurant next door. Best caipirinhas you can get are at favela hype, a restaurant literally across the street, they also sell nice clothes. And also there is a great pizza tent around the corner (tribals): best pizza you will ever get and different from all normal pizzas. Santa Teresa is a really old part of Rio and we had to get used to it, but once we did we loved it. So many coloured houses. We could walk to Lapa and the Uber is very cheap and took us everywhere we wanted and was cheap (compared to what we’re used to in the Netherlands). A Brazilian SIM (ching, privider we had: Tim, 10 euros 3gb) card and google translate is recommended, because people mainly speak Portuguese and a little bit Spanish.