Just as a follow up to Christina's post, I thought I'd do a little blurb on safety in traveling in Brazil. Christina, your post definitely got me thinking about potentially staying in Brazil for a bit after our trip and exploring some of the more "touristy" areas. However, I've often heard that Brazil is not safe, especially to travel in and wanted to read up about safety concerns. Thousands of people travel to Brazil each year, so it really is just about staying safe and smart! Rio, for example, has definitely improved in terms of safety - the homicide rate has been reduced by half since 2005. However, there are still many thefts, pickpocketings, armed assaults, and car robberies in the cities, so we'd definitely have to be careful while traveling. As expected, recommendations include traveling discretely, not wearing or carrying anything of great value, and familiarizing yourself with the area you are going to be exploring. Basically, planning ahead will make everything safer and more enjoyable :)
I also thought that it's interesting to think about whether the World Cup will affect safety conditions in Brazil and whether Brazil can deliver on achieving fan safety before and after. The 12 World Cup host cities actually have much more surveillance and integrated command centers with police and military personnel as well (Cuiabá and Rio are two of these cities). I'm not sure how much this will affect those who are planning to travel afterwards. In any case, for all of our adventurous travelers, it is probably best to over-plan what you want to do in Brazil and be safe :)
- Nicole
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