By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A soon-to-be-released guidebook,”The Hunt Rio de Janeiro,” will highlight lesser-known restaurants and destinations in Rio de Janeiro. Written by the author of the popular website Eat Rio and creator of Eat Rio Food Tours, Tom Le Mesurier and published by Gatehouse Publishing as part of their Hunt Guides series, “The Hunt Rio de Janeiro,” will be available in stores and online beginning June 30th.
“The Hunt Rio de Janeiro is for anyone who wants to get to the heart of what makes Rio such a special place,” Le Mesurier told The Rio Times. “Primarily it is aimed at people visiting the city as tourists – for example, we have a suggested itinerary for someone who have just 48 hours in the city.”
He adds, “But I also think the book will be great for people living here who are tired of taking their visitors to the same old restaurants, attractions, and samba clubs. There are also a lot of listings for places in Tijuca and Zona Norte [North Zone] – perfect for people who want to see more of the city outside of Zona Sul [South Zone].”
When explaining how he came to be a resident of Rio de Janeiro, Le Mesurier said; “I grew up in England but spent much of my childhood traveling to far-flung locations in the Pacific and Africa (my father is an eye surgeon who works on blindness prevention programs in developing countries). With this upbringing, travel was in my blood and I was never going to settle down to a quiet life in England.”
“In 2010, during a year-long trip around Latin America, I met a Brazilian journalist in Nicaragua,” Le Mesurier continued. “She invited me to come visit her in her Rio – I showed up on her doorstep two months later and four months after that we were married. The rest is history!”
Le Mesurier then began Eat Rio as a blog in 2011. “Since my arrival in Rio I had learned so much about Brazil’s rich culture and Rio’s hidden gems – the ancient bars and quirky old restaurants – that I wanted to share my discoveries,” said Le Mesurier. “This desire grew even stronger when I realized that most visitors to Rio missed out on what I see as the best bits of Rio through simple lack of good advice.”
The blog proved successful and gained a following, leading Le Mesurier to start Eat Rio Food Tours, one of the city’s first culinary tours, in 2013. “It was a logical progression of my mission to help people get more out of this amazing city,” said Le Mesurier.
In addition to tourist traveling to the city and fellow expatriate residents of Rio de Janeiro the Eat Rio the tours and website began to gain the attention of others.
“After seeing Eat Rio, the publisher [Gatehouse Publishing] approached me in 2015 and explained their vision of a guidebook for Rio,” said Le Mesurier. “It was a perfect fit. The whole premise is to shine a light on the lesser known places and activities that most of us hunt for when we visit a new city. Those magical experiences – perhaps a small, family run restaurant or a hidden forest trail – that we’ll remember long after the obvious tourist attractions have faded to a distant memory.”
“The Hunt Rio De Janeiro” will be available in shops and online beginning June 30th and is currently available for preorder on Amazon and is available in Brazil Amazon.com.br.