The Maya Café is a cute coffee shop, where the locals meet. Although close to Flamengo and Botafogo and the Christ statue of course, it’s located in Laranjeiras, a little off the beaten track, and so I guess very few tourists visit this place. And this is the very reason why I like it…therefor it’s authentic, cosy, and nice, also and in particular in times of Carnival, when the whole city fills up with people from around the world and gets super-crowded and “a little” crazy.

The main room of the Maya Café is actually quite small but decorated with all kind of interesting things ranging from art to pictures from the old days, while playing relaxing smooth jazz and subtile Brazilian music. I decided to visit the Maya Café for its vicinity to the Rua Stefan Zweig, a small street close by dedicated to Stefan Zweig, one of the…