The Real Rio

Now that I have left Rio - and you won't tell me to jump on the next plane home - I feel that it is safe to talk about safety.

Or lack of it.

Dangerous at the best of times I had been warned time and time again how particularly and scarily dangerous Rio is at Carnaval time.

And, as a result, I have never been more paranoid about my own or my friends' safety in my life. As a regular and experienced traveller in all sorts of environments and countries I think i've been pretty lucky when it comes to having never been mugged or robbed. I'm usually pretty relaxed about safety but I always keep my wits about me with a lot of common sense, a little bit of street smart and an awareness of my surroundings that means few surprises. 

These things help in Rio - but they don't necessarily make you safe.

My friend was robbed and mugged on the same day. He's an experienced traveller. My roommate had an attempted mugging as she walked down the street. Two teenage boys rode past on their bikes and grabbed her bag. She grabbed it back and screamed and they ran off. It could have been much worse. My friends constantly and blatently had fingers in their back pockets when out at night - just in case they were stupid enough to leave their wallets in there. We saw children darting through the crowd, their little fingers fishing in and out of pockets and handbags.

We heard horror story after horror story...

Travelling alone made it difficult to be as safe as I would have liked. There were times when I was briefly alone at night and quite often I walked alone during the day - but only on busy streets and always with my hand on my bag, my bag accross my shoulders, glancing furtively around me. I always caught a taxi home at night - never a metro on my own. In Europe I wouldn't think twice about catching the train or metro late at night on my own. I stuffed cash down my bra. That way, if I was mugged or robbed at least I would still have cash to get me back to the hotel. I hate wearing those secret money belts - I think they do more harm than good and I have never worn one, but possibly here it would have been a good idea. Though i have heard of people who have been mugged of their wallet and then told to hand over their money belt too....not so secret then. I never took any of my debit or credit cards out with me - and only took as much cash as I needed for the day or for the night. the rest I hid in different places in my backpack left in the hotel room, and the hotel safe. I only took my camera if I really felt i had no other choice - but never to the beach....and I backed up all my photos every time I got back to the hotel. I was prepared to lose my camera - though it would have been a shame - but not to lose my photos. For the first time in my life I used the hotel's safety deposit box for my passport and of course it NEVER left the hotel. My girlfriends and I often felt hastled by the brazillian men when we were out at night - to the point of having to grab one of the boys in our group of friends, pretending that he was our boyfriend to make the locals leave us alone (at one point i think Quin was 'boyfriend' to about 5 of us...his lucky night!)...and, in Rio, even that wasn't enough...still they came and tried to kiss us and dance with us...just a nuisance really - but annoying and exhausting when all you want is to have a good old dance with your friends.

Rio is beautiful. Yes. Maybe one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is a super fun place and I had an absolute blast - the party of my lifetime. And I would even say that I would like to come back here when it isn't carnaval time to see what the city is like in a 'normal' time frame. But I hated the feeling of helplessness and danger and the paranoia it caused and for that reason there was a part of me that hated the city too. I believe that the police and Brazillian government are trying desperately to clean up the city ready for the upcoming world cup and olympics. A desperate move in a desperate city.

I have an Australian friend who loves Rio so much that he would move here in a second.

He can have it. Personally....I don't see the appeal....

Till next time...