Travel - Brazil

I am not sure if this is the place for this sort of thing.....But anyway.I am hoping to go to Brazil for a couple of weeks prior to Easter. Rio mainly but possibly elsewhere depending on time and funds. Igauzu is particularly high on the agenda if feasible as a trip from a base in Rio.I would therefore like to ask EvC members -1) Can anyone reccommend any cheap (backpacker/hostel/cheap hotel) type places in Rio for accommodation?2) Any advice in general on Brazil as a country/culture?3) Anyone specifically been to Iguazu from Rio? What is the best way to do it?4) I often use a Lonely Planet book as a vague guide on my travels. I like the format and am familiar with the terminology, maps etc. But the most recent LP for Brazil/Rio seems to be over a year old. Any other suggestions with regard to guide books for Brazil/Rio which will be more up to date?

Cool!!!! I am going with a friend who is a black guy. Brazil seems very racially diverse but, as you obvioulsy know the country and culture inside out, I wanna ask if it will be considered at all strange for a very white (blond haired and inevitably sunburnt - i.e. me) and a very black (he looks like an African heavy weight boxer) to be hanging out together?I was also wondering how, as obvious tourists, we can avoid being ripped off as much as possible?Also if you can recommend any places in and around Rio to visit or tell me if the trip from Rio to Sau Paulo is worth doing that would be really useful.Finally (for now) how can I get tickets for a football match!!!???
Gotta see some football in Brazil!!!!!! I have been told this about a lot of places that I have visited (Georgetown Guyana, Jamaica, Moscow, Harare, Phnom Penh Cambodia, etc. etc. etc. Even London where I live) but I have rarely had any real cause for concern. The US is where I have in many ways felt most vulnerable!!Is Rio particularly dangerous and are there parts of it where we should just not go? Yep I have come to that conclusion too. Bought it today along with flight tickets.So I am def going.

Thanks for your advice.Just got back. Didn't get robbed, only got ripped off in the most trivially touristic sense, had an awesome time and enjoyed the crazy beach and football culture of Rio to the max.Did the Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer which are indeed spectacular but felt inevitably herded to these obvious tourist destinations. Much preferred playing foottie on Copacabana beach with the kids (who laughed hysterically at my ineptitude - but who continued to include me in their game day after day) and drinking ice cold Antarctica on the pavements outside various scruffy bars.Until Rio I had never realised that both rice and potato should be considered a combination in nearly every meal rather than as an altenative to each other. Edited by Straggler, : spelling

Hey Nosy. I took a Favela tour on your advice and it was very probably the most poignant part of the trip. Guided round by a couple of favela community leaders who had pre-arranged and negotiated our passage with the local drug baron past the rifle toting teenagers on sentry duty at various points up the main hillside road of the favela in question. Kinda scary. But also kinda good humoured. I am not used to seeing guns. Especially those being waved around by "kids" on terriotorial guard duty. But other than the inevitable laughing at my touristic stupidity and being asked "Hey Gringo - Gimme a dollar" there was little to worry about. Much of the price for the tour goes to community projects.Found the centre of Rio to be much more relevant than I had expected. Most accounts I had heard before going concentrated on the beach areas but I am a big fan of exploring cities in general and downtown Rio had all the culture, mayhem and history you would expect from any large global city whilst being distinctly "carioca" in nature. Great fun!!