I'm bummed that we only had ten days or so to explore Brazil. What an interesting country! Our three stops - Iguazu Falls, Rio and Ilha Grande, were all amazing and I'm looking forward to coming back for more. But I have to admit to some apprehension before we arrived, over safety and costs in particular.
A couple of observations:
1. Despite its terrible reputation for street crime, we never felt unsafe, even in Rio. Yes, I get that Rio is like other large South American cities - you really need to keep an eye open, and there definitely are people out there who will rip you off. But in six months of travel through the continent, including stops in big cities with bad reputations like Quito, Guayaquil, Lima, La Paz, BA and Rio, we never had any problems. And Rio seemed no different than Quito or Lima in this regard.
2. We read that Brazil is now the most expensive country in the world to visit. We found that Brazil we definitely more expensive than most other countries we visited, with the possible exception of Chile. But at the end of the day, it's still cheaper than New York. We paid $225 a night for a family suite in Rio. Dinners for the four of us ran between $60 and $200. Beers on the beach cost $2.50. It's not Peru to be sure, but it's still cheaper than England, Italy, France, or even New York, by a long shot.
Last observation, and a reminder to self: Outside of a few very international spots, English is not widely spoken in Brazil. And don't fool yourself into thinking that you can get by with Spanish - you can't. It's a big country, and people here speak Portuguese only, for the most part. Native Spanish speakers seem to pick it up quickly, but for us, it was tougher than I expected. For my next trip, I'm going to learn at least a little Portuguese in advance.
Rio Olympics in 2016 anyone?
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