Now I live since nearly two years in Brasil and my opinion about this country is still conflicting: on one side its for sure one of the most impressing countries concerning the nature, on the other side also one of the countries with enormous social differences, and this always means: criminality and violence.
I don’t want to talk here about attractions like Ouro Preto, an Unesco-city, the spectaculous waterfalls of iguacu, the cities Salvador de Bahia and Manaus, about these attractions you find informations in every travel guide, and this is good so, they are worth the visit. And yes, the people in Brasil are really amazingly friendly, the country itself,a quasi-continente, shows so many different sides from the black-african north to the european south like only few others.
As a conclusion I would say: YES, you should visit Brasil, and visit besides the mentioned travel-guide attractions especially the amazing wonders of nature this country has, and NO, I cant give the recommendation anymore, to visit Rio de Janeiro anymore without an urgent safety warning. Let me explain both points:
At this time, I would give nobody anymore the recommendation to visit Rio de Janeiro as a tourist, even for brasilian inhabitants the situtation, caused by the fights between the drug dealers of the favelas, is dangerous and crazy, the more for the tourist. Of course Rio had a huge criminality to all times, but you could decrease your personal risk: if you didn’t walk styled like a typical tourist along the copacabana beach and attracted with camera and big portemonnaie the thieves and gangsters, or did visit the favelas for reasons of curiosity and false pride, you was rather safe. Today the criminality is so perfectly organized that you are in danger also as a cautious tourist. One methoe: you come out of the airport and take a taxi. At the door of the airport a person stands and gives the carnumber of the taxi to his companion via handy, who follows you on a motorbike some time later, makes the taxi with a weapon to stop and wants all your money and package. I would give everyone the advice to do what he wants, if you love your life a little bit.
If someone talks about the nature of Brasil, everybody thinks about the amazonia, but the real paradise for the friend of pure nature and animals is the pantanal (state mato grosso and mato grosso do sul). In the jungle of the amazonia the animals hide in the deep forest, in the free areas of the pantanal they can be seen also by the non-professional viewer and animal friend. The pantanal is an immense wet area in south america and half as big as France. You can travel to the pantanal in the dry season between april and september, of course with a landrover only. For people with a bigger portemonnaie an airplane is the right way to travel there.
And another tip of unbelievable wonderful nature: the south of Brasil, the state Rio Grande do sul, with the national parc Aparados da serra. The main attraction in there is the itaimbezinho, a phantastic canyon, whose walls are 700 m tall; two waterfalls are there besides of amazing impression. Another attraction of this national parc is the canyon da fortaleza, 30 km long and 900 m deep. Simply breath-taking!
A fly to Brasil costs from Frankfurt/Germany direct to Rio de Janeiro about 900 Euros (2 ways). The cheapest way to spend the night are pousadas, where you can sleep and also get a good meal. Prices at about 5 Euros and higher per night.
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Mar 31st, 2005
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