Travel Advisory and Tips

Travel Advisory
Last week on the news a noticed passed about the increase of attacks on tourists, specifically in Rio de Janeiro. This was sad, but to be expected. What intrigued and kind of scared me was the last comments of the reporter. "The American embassy will not send out a travel advisory about the increase in tourist targeted crimes". Woah Woah Woah American embassy. The very first thing that came to my mind, a conspiracy theory of course, was that someone got paid off. The last thing Brazil's government wants along with protests, strikes, and tragically falling stadiums, is the US embassy telling rich tourists not to come to the World Cup in June and July of 2014. My eyebrow is raised, but, who knows?

Travel Advisory from Me
Please be careful! I know what the majority of internationals do, especially Americans, when they come to Brazil. They drink too much and search for short-term mating partners. They learn the phrases for "thank you" and "more beer" and happily trust that attractive Brazilian who speaks English. It's going to be a tricky situation. Many Brazilians by nature are very warm,welcoming and are intrigued by foreigners. Many want to take care of the cute helpless stranger who doesn't speak Portuguese and show them a good time. And that is the travelers dream, isn't it; being welcomed into a culture, being taken under some natives wing and shown all the "real" cultural aspects, something outside of tourist destinations and McDonalds. That's what every free-spirited traveler wants.

Well listen up free-spirited travelers, what you want is attainable, however you need to be very careful. The majority of you will stick out with your clothes, paleness or over tanned body, and loud English, and thus become a target of robbery, and hopefully nothing more than that. Luckily Brazilians in general aren't aggressively anti-American, so that is one less thing to worry about.

Em fim, be careful. Practice all the safety measures you do at home and then some.


And Then Some.
The following are general travel tips that one should practice while traveling in general and particularly, to beautiful Brazil:
- Have a phone and make sure your phone can go international. Consider using your domestic plan abroad (convenient but costly) or buy a SIM card upon arrival. In some cases you will need a CPF (the brazilian social security number) to get a SIM/cell plan and in other cases operators will let you register with your passport number. Buying SIM cards can be done at any operator store (Claro, Tim, Vivo, Oi ), but know that some operators work better than others in certain areas. For this reason many, and arguably the majority of Brazilians use more than one operator by either having two cellphones or phones designed to hold multiple chips. So, ask locals which is best.
- Keep list of important numbers, such as for police, consulate, local contact, credit card company in case of   lost or stolen card.
-If possible have a native contact in the area where you are traveling in case of emergency.
- Do not wear flashy, expensive jewelry, watches, apparel.
- Avoid openly demonstrating that you are foreign by talking loud in other language.
- Take copies of your passport with you in case yours gets lost or stolen.
- Ask your hotel or hostel receptionist about the safety of certain neighborhoods where you want to travel during various times of day/night.
- Don't keep all of your money on you at once.
- If you get stopped by gun or knife point, just give up your goods.
- Avoid putting yourself in situations where your good-judgement skills are weakened.
- As Oprah says, "never let yourself be taken to a second location".