Safety
You may have seen the media reports about the terrible violence that supposedly exists in Rio De Janeiro. It probably makes you very wary of coming here. But it needn't. The first thing to know is that the vast majority of the violence occurs in the shanty towns on the hillsides around the city. Commonly known as Favelas this is where the poorest people of Rio live. Also in these Favalas are well organised gangs of criminals who deal in drugs, robbery and any other crime you can think of. However most of their activities take place in and around these Favelas.
And it is in these areas that they have running battles with the police. In most other areas of the city the general level of crime is no worse than any other large city (8 million plus people). That means it exists but you should not worry unduly.
Some people find these Favelas fascinating and there are even tours for holiday makers to go and visit them. Our advice is DON'T take the tour. They are lawless places and one day one of those tours is going to turn ugly. And if you are foolish enough to go in on your own then you probably won't come back out. Even in a box.
A new security police force has recently been introduced, composed of military reservists. They are deployed along the beach front and other well known haunts of tourists. They wear a black uniform. They do not carry guns but have a truncheon. They only work up until 8pm. They would be more useful to have around after dark.
You get young steet urchins on the beaches sometimes and they will look for tourists sleeping or leaving their valubles unguarded while they swim or take a wander, So first don't take anything of major value to the beach.
Example: Jewelry, Large amounts of cash etc and secondly don't leave what you do take unattended.
This is not difficult if there are two or more of you. If you are on your own it's more of a problem. But you shouldn't be alone for long in Brazil anyway. That's why you came right?
You can buy and rent most things on the beach, food, drink, sunshades, chairs etc etc. Just make sure you agree a price before hand otherwise they will charge you an exorbitant one and feel justified in doing so!
Tipping. It is worth remembering that the majority of the people you come into contact with are not earning very much money at all. Tipping waiters, taxi drivers etc is the norm as in the west. Here however it assists them even more as the average wage is very low.
