Our host was exactly what we needed. He made sure he met us and saw us off but allowed us our own time and space. He even kindly booked a taxi for us to the airport. The apartment was great. We loved the view from the balcony and it had a really charming and quirky feel. The neighbourhood was great-loud, samba music, drums,lots of fun. Obviously you can hear a lot of street noise but we slept well overall. It was a little noisy under the roof when it rained. It was easy to catch buses to get to sights further afield such as Christ the redeemer and Sugar Loaf. You have a great view of the Lapa Arches and we could have happily watched the world go by from the apartment with a beer if we had stayed another night.