Danger In Rio!

[The Dude]

I´ve been in Rio a total of about two weeks all together, so maybe I haven´t experienced it enough yet, but....

You´re always hearing about how dangerous it is. I really think it´s not as dangerous as everyone says though. I know there is a ton of violence, but if you stay in safe neighborhoods, you should be safe during the day. There are definitely rules you need to follow, like don´t go out alone after 11p or walk in areas without people after dark alone. Don´t take the bus alone after dark, or maybe even after 11 even with friends. Don´t ever flash your wealth. I would stay away from favelas for the most part and if you go around one, go with someone who knows what the fuck they´re doing, and don´t just assume they know what they´re doing just because they say they do (I´ve been, but only to a little one and the entrance of a big one, but only with a local kid that I know and trust. The small one was not scary, the big one was a little and I wasn´t even inside). Even if you are with someone who has been to a favela many times, there is no telling what could happen ever. That being said, Rio is a violent city, but I think more so for people who live in poorer neighborhoods. When I first got to Brazil, some guys in the favelas had shot down a police helecopter. About two days later, a thief shot a man in the street and robbed him for his shoes, hat, and wallet.... 30 seconds later the cops show up, walk past the man who is bleeding to death in the street and approach the robber, only to take the possessions he had stolen from the man bleeding in the street for themselves, letting the rober go, and leaving the man to die in the middle of the street (All caught on tape too). Now that is fucked up. I also hear that the favelas are the second most dangerous place in the world after a war zone in Africa. More people die in the favelas than the war in Iraq. The first I take with a grain of Salt, the later I beileve to be true. Yeah, Rio is a violent city for sure, but I really think as a tourist, if you stay in safe places you are pretty fine as long as you follow some obvious guidlines.

Thoughts on this?

[tom]

Mostly i felt it was more likely in rio that someone would rob me for my money but they had no interest in actually hurting me.

Compare that to cities in europe where drunk youths are out for violence and i feel safer in Rio.

Still, it's not much fun to be such an obvious target if you look like a westerner.

[nick]

i am travelling in latin america and will soon hopefully touch down on brazil. i ve been to notorious cities like Guate, Tegucigalpa and Bogota and found them to be safe during the day but at night always taxis if i want to get to another part of the city.
only the city of Caracas in Venezuela is extremely dangerous day and night. I got robbed there at midday on the main Sabana Grande Boulevard. there were other people walking but no one did anything. that was really shocking as it went against my belief of thinking that that city was only really dodgy at night.
but very few tourists go to venezuela and there is virtually no backpacker infrastructure in caracas.
i think in Rio there certainly are popular tourist places with police presence. but that story is fucked up.

[The Dude]

Tom , I feel the same way. It´s more people get robbed, not harmed. I only carry $R100 max and a pack of smokes on me anyways. I can afford to lose $60. I honestly feel like I´m in more danger in some neighborhoods in Vegas at night, where thugs drive down the steet in their cars yellin out the window `what the fuck you looking at?´ when your looking at the ground, than I do in Rio. But then again I pretty much stick in the safe neighborhoods. I have been in some pretty shady neighborhoods in São Paulo though, and that was pretty scary, even during the day. It was right outside the favela and the surrounding neighborhood was basically a favela. Our friend just dropped us off at a store in the middle of the straight ghetto because he told us he didn´t want anything to happen to us in the favela. A truck right down the road was on fire, some kids were getting busted by the Polícia Militar, and my friends were copping some goodies all within two miles of eachother. It´s was a very intense place, you could just feel it as soon as you start to enter into the poorer parts. The thing about Brazil is, is that so much of the population is poor, and the rest are rich. There´s not really much in between. It´s basically like 10% of the population control 80% of the wealth. It´s crazy.