I'm not much of a traveler and certainly have no experience with Brazil. My only story is from my sister who was there in perhaps the 70s with her Anthropology husband studying fazendas. They were visiting the capital during heavy rainstorms, walking around in knee deep waters. Locals told them later that they could have been sucked into storm drains that had lost their grates. Perhaps if pregnant, you wouldn't get sucked down??

Of course I don't know about crime either. However, my general opinion is that we have all lost rationality about crime. For example, when growing up in the '60s, we were all expected to be running around unsupervised and nothing bad ever happened to anyone we knew. Crime rates were low in the 60s and they allmost doubled in the 80s or early 90s but are back much closer to the 60s although everyone is now freaked to let their kids go next door.

Perhaps you wouldn't visit Chicago? I hear crime rate is up 10% This Year, but again crime there is far lower than when America was Great. I just checked. The current crime rate in Las Vegas is well above Chicago. More murders in Chicago because far more people. Actually, most big cities here do have lower rates than 'Vegas and Chicago, but all big cities had higher rates in the '90s.

I have been to Mono Lake. There is essentially nothing there except a couple non-discript motels. It IS the place (being almost empty and could hear all dinner conversations), where I learned that the majority of tourists visiting Yosemite (just over the mountain) were speaking German, not English.

I was afraid to go to NYC in the 1970s, and I was mugged three times during the 12 years that I lived in San Francisco from 1972-1984. One of the reasons I moved from S.F. was all the crime I witnessed on city buses, not to mention the ugly graffiti. The graffiti in NYC bothered me too. I would not be afraid to visit Chicago, but I would definitely try to avoid certain areas/neighborhoods, as I did in SF and NYC. I could probably do the same in Rio. So far, I have not had many problems in foreign countries, although I've had money stolen from me in Vancouver and Palenque (Mexico). I've endured verbal abuse in NY, but not as bad as what I experienced in Texas.

The question is more about whether I want to go to a place where I won't feel safe, since I do not need to go there. I was warned about pickpockets in Costa Rica and Italy but had no problems with that. The worse experience in Rome was an unofficial taxi driver who overcharged me, but I was not near a taxi station and paid what he asked just because I was so exhausted at the time after walking all over the Forum, which is somewhat hilly.

I ran into a lot of German tourists in Mexico, but in Italy, I noticed more Chinese than anything else. Living in Venice (CA), I noticed mostly German and Italian tourists, plus a few French and Japanese, as the British tourists were warned that Venice was a dangerous area, and they were advised to go to Santa Monica instead. I'm not sure what they are telling British tourists today, but that's what I read in Rough Guide about 10-12 years ago.

I went to Brazil 20 years ago with 3 other girl friends (we were in our 40's). We stayed in a small hotel on Copa Cabana Beach. We had a ball, took public transportation, buses, and cabs to the tourist spots and restaurants. We also hired a English speaking driver through the hotel and he took us to a small town called Paraty which was marvelous. We were only there 4 nights, and yes it was 20 years ago. I have since been to Peru and Argentina and would not hesitate to go back. (and no, I don't speak Portuguese or Spanish)

I have been to a few latin American countries. They all kind of lumped together in my memory. I can only remember a few things about brazil.

It was a couple of days after the American Airline crashed. The unlucky plane which left right after my plane.

I was going to Argentina. When I got to Brazil, I was watching the news of the plane crash in the hotel lobby. I couldn't understand what they were talking about because it was in Portuguese. I was not pleased that in Brazil, at that time, they would not take Argentinian money, not even cash exchange places.

I remember visiting the big factory which supplied all the pastries for Au Bon Pain here in the USA.

I don't remember which Brazil city I was in, a very busy city, but Argentina Buenos Aires was a much prettier city.

dcarch

I think I should be okay in Brazil. After all, I went to British Honduras (before it was Belize) in 1978 while it was at war with Guatemala and crossed the border into Guatemala during that war. I also visited Oaxaca while it was experiencing guerrilla warfare, and I had to dodge bayonets while crossing the streets.

I would like to see Sugarloaf mountain. I'm really more concerned about Zika virus than I am about crime in Brazil.

The Zika virus is not as bad as something like the flu or the tourist trots, especially if you're not pregnant. Your chances are much slimmer now that they've been spraying poisons for almost two years and the mosquito population has been knocked back. B vitamins are supposed to make your skin secret a fragrance that mosquitoes don't like very much. Add to that some high quality bug spray with DEET and you'll be as safe as possible.

As I mentioned in an email to you, Rio is a dangerous city and now that the Olympics is over, things have gone back to where they were before the government arrested everyone. I have a friend who was there about 4 months ago and he said the city, beyond a couple of blocks from the beach is a disaster.

I have been to New York City many times and never found it as dangerous as some parts of Boca Raton. Every city has good and bad sections. In Rio, the good sections have armed guards everywhere you look, including the beach. When I was there 15, 16 years ago, we were warned not to leave the hotel property, not to bring anything of value to the beach, and not to open our hotel room door to anyone after dark. This was at the Hilton.

The old saying was that when you first get to Rio, you get robbed, and then you let go of material considerations and have a fantastic time. I think that was more around Carnival, however. You're going in midwinter, however, which should have a calming effect on tempers. :)

I wouldn't worry about the dream. It sounds like an anxiety dream rather than an omen, unless you had it before you started heard about going to Rio and started thinking about the Zika virus. When you have stuff on your mind, your dreams try to resolve the issues, and when the dream gets really weird, you're more likely to note it consciously and remember the weirdness. :)

As with going to any major metropolis, where you don't have your own place in things, wear a cheap watch, bring/buy a cheap phone that doesn't have all your important info in it (put your contacts and other travel info on the cloud, and upload your pictures so losing it won't matter much), don't bring valuables, dress down, don't carry a lot of cash, separate your cash in different, front pockets so you're never flashing a wad. All that stuff. And don't gawk and take touristy pictures. It's better to do them selfie style. If you can live without a "real" camera that will help a lot.

This is not Brazil experience, just general iffy travel.

No matter how bad it is, people do go there without being bothered. I'd be most worried about hotel security while you're sleeping, than people messing with you while you're walking around. Consider a walking stick if it won't annoy you. Makes a great club. :) But make sure you don't look infirm while holding it...

You speak some Spanish, don't you? If you can use what you have, and put a nice Tejano or Californio accent on it, plus add in as many Portuguese words as you can learn, it'll help. It's respectful, because a lot of Brazilians will understand your Spanish better than you understand their Portuguese. Many may also speak English, but there's no bigger target than the rich looking guy yawping away in English.

You also have sense. You're looking for a good meal, I'm sure. Crazy tourists say things like, ooh, we have to see the favelas! Like ooh, can we go see Watts? The 'hood is not for tourists, and treating poor folk like zoo animals is a sure way to get smacked, but I just can't see you being like that!

If you go to Brazil, does that mean Kevin doesn't get a vacation? I've been to NorCal and Oregon many times, and a couple of times to Banff. They're nice places...but Brazil sounds much more interesting!!

I would definitely not go to the favelas, and I am an experienced enough traveler to know how to keep myself reasonably safe. I'm not the type to wear expensive jewelry when traveling, and I generally do not take anything that I cannot afford to lose - except for my diary, and I almost lost that once in Oaxaca when I left it on the train after I got off, but when I went back to the train station, my diary was still there. I used to dress up to go to parties in Mexico City, but I always went with friends, and so that was not a danger. Actually, a lot of people in Mexico City thought I was Mexican, albeit a rich Mexican. And yes, I do speak a fair amount of Spanish, plus Italian and French, although I don't know how much that will help with Portuguese. I'm sure my friend can teach me what Portuguese I will need, but I will rely on him to do most of the talking, just as Kevin relied on me in Italy. I did occasionally accidentally throw in a Spanish word while speaking Italian, but the Italians knew what I meant and quickly told me the correct Italian word.

I think I'll go to some Brazilian restaurants and the Brazilian market on Venice Blvd to get some ideas about how Brazil is these days. The house next door to me in Venice was bought by a couple from Brazil - the husband looked German, but the woman was definitely Portuguese, and she used to sing love songs while she was working in the yards. I loved listening to her, and she also sang in a couple of local restaurants as well. I wish I had kept in touch with her. I used talk with her a lot when I was still in Venice.

I may still go on another vacation with Kevin even if he does not go to Brazil with me, but he said he thought it would be nice to go to Brazil.

By the way, I do not have a working cell phone and will not have one in Brazil either, although my friend probably will. I have a $200 Canon camera that I will take, however, which is what I took to Italy and Costa Rica.

Rio gets 3" of rain (on average) in June, but that is one of the drier months and appears to have the fewest rainy days (7) of any month. Temperature should be pleasant.

It's not so much how much your Romance languages will help with Portuguese, but that Brazil is surrounded by Spanish and most Brazilians understand it. Throw in as much French or Italian as fills the gaps. :)

A lot of what is said about Rio could be said about Mexico City. You know how to travel without becoming a target. That's the main thing. And maybe take a new diary so it's only your trip you'd lose if it gets stolen. :)

If you're into nature, there's a great guidebook about waterfalls of the PNW, if you go north with Kevin. There are half a dozen on Amazon, though, and I'm not sure which is the one I was thinking of. If you were thinking Ashland, now is the time to get tickets.

I agree that Spanish will be understood enough in Brazil to get by. My only knowledge of Brazil is that I had a Brazilian foreign exchange student stay with me when Amanda was in high school. Juliana was from a wealthy family and she said that the roads were terrible, that there was no minimum drinking age but you had to be 21 to drive because the roads were so bad. She also said her parents sent her to Michigan to get her away from Carnival, where "people mostly did drugs and exchanged sexually transmitted diseases", LOL. She was also amazed at my tiny local grocery store, saying that we had so many choices. Cookies, for example, she said in Brazil there were "two kinds. Chocolate and.......not chocolate". (grin)

Anyway, I'd vote for you going. You haven't been there and I don't think it's probably any more dangerous than Costa Rica or Mexico.

I do hope you and Kevin still plan to come to Michigan sometime! Summer would definitely be better. Elery's son is visiting from California some time this summer, we invited him for Christmas and since he grew up in Michigan he replied that he'd much rather come in July!

Annie

Check out the CIA website.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Also the British Foreign Office has useful information for travellers

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/brazil/health

Lars, you are correct to be concerned. We had neighbors from Brazil. They did go back there to live. They were professionals and so had good income there. They explained how they had to live in order to feel safe there. Locks, security, enclosed secured parks for the kids etc.

Annie I have traveled to Costa Rica many times and I would not equate it to Brazil.

I agree about Mexico though.

All of this said, you would be going with someone who is experienced. You just have to weigh if your feelings of not being comfortable will outweigh your feelings for adventure.

eld, I've never been to Costa Rica. My youngest daughter went several years ago, the year she graduated from high school. She went with a group of young people, they stayed a couple of nights in the National Geographic cabins where they could see the lava flow from the volcano at night, and toured a coffee plantation by day.

However, being "that age", she and her friends decided to go where they were specifically told not to go. They were chased by large stray dogs more than once, accosted by locals numerous times daily because she had waist length blonde hair that made her stand out, got stung by some jellyfish swimming in the ocean and sent home pictures of street food. The coffee got seized by Homeland Security and I didn't get it for months.

So, it's probably a lot safer than it sounded, as she was amazed that she didn't get arrested, kidnapped or killed. She did say that the "nice areas" were very nice and that the rest of the country was pretty much abject poverty. That was nearly a decade ago, though, and so much may have changed.

Mexico was horrible, I went there once and couldn't come back fast enough. Just crossing the border, seeing the tanks, the banks of sandbags, the soldiers with assault rifles everywhere, the warning to never, ever take a picture of the soldiers or their equipment, well, it kind of took the edge off the excitement, LOL.

I do know that Lars is adventurous and especially if Kevin goes along, there may be more safety in numbers, as three men probably wouldn't be the target that more vulnerable people like the elderly, children or women could be. Except, of course, for those pickpockets and the "quicknappings", where they grab a person and make them empty their bank account at the ATM.

Annie

My wife ran a US-Brazil exchange program in Systems Engineering between two universities in the US and two universities in Brazil. As a part of this program she has been to Brazil four times, and I went along of three of those trips. On the first trip we only went to Rio, on the second our time was split between Porto Allegre (where the other university was) and Rio, and on the third trip we added several days at the start of the trip and went to Iguazu Falls in southern Brazil, in addition to visiting Rio.

We never had any trouble on our travels. Once or twice a local approached us and pointed at my big camera bag and said something like "If you go too much further in that direction with that camera you might encounter trouble"

By the third trip I felt comfortable renting a bike by myself and circling the central lagoon, or biking to the botanical gardens with my wife and another female professor, or taking the subway to the central district and finding "Seleron's Stairs" or walking from a subway stop through a park to the zoo, or taking a guided walking tour through Santa Marta Favela, or even attended an event at the Mangueira "Samba School" one evening with a couple of the Brazilian professors.

If you do go and if you have time to visit elsewhere I would highly recommend Iguazu Falls, which is on the border of Brazil and Argentina, and which is almost 6 times the size of Niagara Falls (Niagara is 50 meters tall and about 1 mile from one end to the other IIRC, whereas Iguazu is 90 meters tall, and almost 3 miles in extent along the top of the falls)

Thanks for all the info - it has really helped me put this into perspective. I think I can handle myself pretty well in this situation, and I also agree that having more people on the trip will make it easier. My last concern is whether I am compatible enough with my friend to be traveling with him. He can be very stubborn and argumentative and sometimes not very pleasant to be around. I've known him since 1970, when we were both students at Rice U., and he lived in San Francisco when I did. His flat-mate in San Francisco was my best friend and sometime roommate at Rice. The other concern I have is allergies.

I guess I should buy a travel guide on Brazil and try to learn a few Portuguese phrases. From what I understand, the grammar is one of the more difficult among the Romance languages, and there are a lot of irregular verbs. I do not plan to get into any long conversations, but I will need to be able to say a few useful sentences. I might also watch a few more Carmen Miranda movies.

I would like to go to Iguazu Falls, but I know my friend (Dean) has already been there, and he might not want to go again. My sister went there with her husband when he was sent by the government as an entomologist.

hummm, seeing that you have so many doubts, as much on your travel companion as to the country itself, I would abstain from going, why put yourself through this, life is too short.

I probably would abstain from going at this point, except that I already told Dean that I would go with him, but we have not worked out flight details, and there may be some additional problems there. He will be flying from Oakland or San Francisco, and I'm not sure where he wants to meet. He could come to L.A., or we could meet in Miami, or we could meet in Rio, although I would prefer to meet in the U.S. It might not be a bad idea to stop in Miami, to make the flights shorter, but that would add to the cost.

BTW, I forgot to mention that I also believe that Costa Rica is a lot safer than Mexico, as there are many areas (not all) of Mexico that are dangerous, and CR seemed to be quite safe. I do think that there is more hype about the dangers of Brazil than are warranted, especially since I am not a naive traveler.

And, of course, crime is non-existent in Venice, CA. :)

Since you haven't worked out details, it's really not to late to back out, if you don't want to go. Unless you owe Dean a huge favor or he has some kind of disabilities he needs help with that pull the strings of friendship for you, being asked a week or three ago to be his companion while he's there for his personal business is different than the two of you planning a dream trip together for months, then changing your mind near the time for buying the tickets. You're not even sure if you'll get to go to Iguaçu because he's in control of the trip. If you want to go, great! If not, don't.

I've been on trips as a companion to someone who was there for business and they were lovely. I generally got to choose where to eat, but the rest of the planning was out of my hands. OTOH, if I had been questioning the safety, or fun, within a reasonable time of saying yes, I wouldn't have hesitated to change my mind. Just be brief, kind and firm.

I'm going to have to have firm dates very soon so that Kevin can get the time off - my own schedule is already flexible, but I do not want to wait until the last minute to buy a plane ticket. If we cannot coordinate flight plans, I think that would be a deal breaker. I do not owe Dean any favors - he makes sure that he collects everything that he thinks is owed to him. He invited me over for dinner once in San Francisco and made me go grocery shopping with him and pay for half of the groceries. If I had known he was going to do that, I would have stayed at home and made my own dinner. If I invite someone to dinner, I do not expect them to pay, much less help with grocery shopping. Dean is bad at pinching pennies.

Oh dear, Lars, he sounds a bit of a nightmare. I think I'd say no and go somewhere you really want to go and not stress.

I think you may be right about Dean. I haven't seen him in several years, and when he called me recently (about I found him on facebook) he told me that the last time we had spoken together on the phone that I had told him that I never wanted to talk with him again. I told him that I never say that to anyone, but he persisted in saying that I had told him this. After a while, he became so annoying that I thought that perhaps I did say this to him, but it would have been a rare case. Still, we have a lot of history together, and I do have quite a few good memories of him as well, and I do not have that many friends left that I have known that long.

Whenever I travel with people, other than my husband, I make it a point to be the flexible one. It sounds like this will have to be the case with you, Lars.

I'm not sure why you agreed to go. If Brazil was on your bucket list, than I can understand you saying yes. But, I think you had a nostalgic moment and agreed to something that you probably shouldn't have.

Are you now afraid to back out because that would be the end of this friendship? I understand trying to hang on to old friendships, but be mindful that traveling with someone who is difficult might also end this friendship.

I have a cousin who loves to travel. But, she has lost many friends. In my opinion, it is mostly her! She has her own agenda and is not flexible, although she thinks he is!

This is actually sounding better. You know what you're getting into while travelling with Kevin. You're making your own arrangements. If dealing with Dean while you're there turns out to be a bad thing, you can easily sever and you and Kevin can continue on your own and have a good time there together. Dean speaks the language some and knows his way around some, so leaving him on his own if it's not working out isn't putting him in a bad spot. And it might work out great! Sometimes people who make great friends are dreadful travelling companions and vice versa.

Dean called me this morning (and actually got me out of bed), and we talked about the trip for over an hour. I now feel good about the trip and I have the dates so that I can get plane tickets. He said he is fine with Kevin coming along and said, "The more, the merrier," which was encouraging - I think actually wants Kevin to come along, possibly because he also realizes that there is more safety in numbers. I also feel better being in a group of three instead of two. We'll have to get our neighbors to take care of our yard again like we did when we went to Italy, but that will not be a problem, since they are next door. She did a good job last year of tending to my Chocolate Habanero seedlings, and I will be planting more of those this year, but after we get back from Texas early March.

Dean is very talkative (as am I), whereas Kevin tends to be quiet, but at least Dean does not repeat himself. What bothers me in a traveling companion is when they tell the same story verbatim multiple times, and Dean does not do this, as he has so many different stories to tell - and we have not seen each other in probably over ten years. Dean lived in San Francisco most of the twelve years that I was there, and so we have/had a lot of mutual friends, plus the ones we had at Rice. Kevin knows some of these people too but will be okay if we talk about people he does not know. For some reason, Kevin can tune out conversations that he does not want to pay attention to - I cannot. I think he learned this from our mother, who used to tune out our father quite frequently.

Dean should be able to give us a decent food tour of Rio and Brazil, as he is also very interested in food and cooking. He mentioned a few food events that he wants to take us to in Rio. His business is selling orchids in the SF Bay Area, but that has become a bit sluggish for him in recent years, due to the flood of cheap orchids at places like Home Depot and Trader Joe's. He also somewhat shares my interest in bromeliads, and I think Brazil should be a good place to see interesting orchids and bromeliads, although Dean told me that Costa Rica had more orchids than Brazil. I am more interested in bromeliads, and I think Brazil should be excellent for that.

Anyway, it looks like the trip is on, and I appreciate all of your help with making this decision. I feel like I have worked through the process of weighing the pros and cons and feel comfortable now with deciding to go.

I talked with my friend Dean again this morning, after receiving an email from him saying that the trip was dependent on his being able to get money from the shop that he owns. I thought the shop was in Oakland or San Francisco, but as it turns out, the shop is in Rio, and this is the reason for his trip. He never before told me where the shop is. Anyway, he gets money from the shop every three to five years, and there must be at least a three year interval for him to get money. He thinks he was there last in 2014 but is not sure. He also told me that the money comes from the parking lot that is jointly owned by several shops - his shop is a bikini wax shop, which I guess is very popular in Rio. He said he is waiting to hear back from his agent in Rio and should know in a couple of days whether the trip is on or not. So far, all I have invested is a Lonely Planet guide book and a Portuguese phrase book, and I told Dean that if he goes next year that I will not be able to go with him, as we plan to go back to Europe that year. If we do not go to Brazil, Kevin and I will take a road trip to Oregon in July. At this point I cannot say what the odds are for the Brazil trip to work out, but I am certainly okay with it working or not working.

The Brazil trip is back on, and I made reservations at a travel agent today!

Well, I hope you have a wonderful trip. We're having a more modest trip to England LOL

Oh, my, IC! Perhaps you should pack a guide and a phrase book just in case?

I guess that is a joke about IC needing a guide and phrase book for England - I thought she was originally from England. For myself, I need to start studying my own phrase book. BTW, I met a woman at the Farmers' Market last Saturday who used to live in Brazil, and she told me she would tutor me in Portuguese for $25 an hour, if I want. I would want to study a bit first on my own, and perhaps Dean can tutor me for free. I might also go to the Brazilian market on Venice Blvd for some more info, especially for what to see in Brazil.

Yes, she admitted abashedly. A wee joke for the expat....

The woman you met is nice to offer, but for that rate, you should be able to hire a native speaker. Also check the app store. There are basic learning to speak apps for a lot of languages.

You made a joke about it but it can be a real problem! Because of modern communications I have kept up with "modern English" but my poor father suffered a lot. He was Polish and came to England at the end of the war like so many. Poland was then pretty closed and he didn't see his family very often but when he saw his sisters they used to fall about laughing as they he said he spoke polish like someone in the 1930s.

Then, thinking about it, there are more and more people coming to England for so many reasons and many don't speak English yet......

LOL! I'm like that. ;) I'm just old enough to not be part of the language groups that are carrying the language into the future, and that's regarding my daily local English. The foreign languages I speak are really fossilized. :)

We have hundreds of identifiably separate languages spoken in Southern California, so I do know what you mean. While there are some drawbacks to having limited mutual intelligibility, I think people are also more tolerant when they're accustomed to speaking to people who are so different. I've seen guys from different regions, both fully fluent in standard English, nearly come to blows over the word "billion", until I wrote it out and showed that each was speaking of a different order of magnitude. When you're constantly meeting people who for sure have limited English skills, it's easier not to get hung up on the specifics of a single word.

Just so long as you still know how to ask for the exit or the restroom (as we say in the USA). :)

I have had problems making myself understood in the U.S. It's always very interesting teaching English to people who are goin to travel to the U.S. the diffrences can be very important. Pants is a word that springs to mind LOL

I hope you have a great trip, Lars! Pick up some sour starch if you've never had it... aka sour tapioca starch, aka other things. Brazilian cheese rolls made with sour starch are fantastic.

The language thing reminds me of our road trip in Germany -- I was navigating and started to panic because I just couldn't manage to locate 'Ausfahrt' on the map! yeah, it took a while... it means 'exit'. :O)

Islay, please explain pants. lol!

If I am not confused, my memory may help you out pm. Think 'under'.

I see London

I see France

I can see your .......

What ryhmes with France? LOL

Your pants are our trousers and our pants are underwear. Vests to us are also underwear, we queue and you stand in line. You make verbs out of nouns like de-plane - my head is starting to hurt! aarrgghh

you stand in line

Except in the parts of the US where you stand on line instead. :)

In Canada, they stand in line-ups, which I had always associated with potential criminals at the police station.

We don't have any plans for visiting England in the near future, but before we do, I will try to learn British English. American English is more archaic, in the same way that Quebecois is more like archaic French. I've had trouble understanding English tourists in Vancouver in the past, as they expect everyone to understand Cockney.

Kevin says he is finally excited now about going to Brazil. I have the plane tickets but not the seat confirmations yet. I sort of regret going to a travel agent at this time and plan to go to the Brazilian Consulate for our visas.

The German I speak is very archaic, and young Germans generally do not like to speak German with me because they say I talk like their grandmothers. I think I'll be able to pick up modern German very quickly when we visit Germany.

BTW, my second Russian teacher was Polish, but I never learned any Polish.

Yesterday I filled out my visa application on-line (as required by the Consulate), and it took about an hour. They require you to scan and upload a 2"x2" passport type photo (and I had to get a new one made) that is less than 6 months old, and this must be uploaded to the application, along with a scanned signature, plus a scan of your passport and airline ticket. The last two are optional, but I included them anyway. I had to reinstall my scanner in order to do this, and it took me a while to get it working properly. They also ask for all of your names and names of your parents. My birth certificate name is different from my passport name, and so I had to include both.

Next I will have to make an appointment with the Consulate in Beverly Hills, and they are open only two hours a day. I also have to glue a copy of the 2"x2" photo to my application, and we are going to get some rubber cement for that, which we currently do not have. We also have to get U.S. postal money orders for $160 for each application - no other type of payment is accepted. The reason for this price is retribution for the price that the U.S. charges Brazilian citizens. I think there will also be an exit fee when we try to leave Brazil, like the $20 we had to pay to leave Costa Rica, and I will need to find out what that will be ahead of time.

We're going in the "off" season, and so I haven't made hotel reservations yet, but there should be plenty of options. However, some hotels are closed in June, due to lack of activity.

Update, if anyone is interested...

I picked up our visas on Wednesday and today I got a hotel reservation for the first three nights we will be there. It is for a cheap hotel in Ipanema, but it has a smallish room with three twin-sized beds. The price for three nights for three people is $199.00, which works out to about $22 per person per night. I think that room should be adequate for the first three nights, and it is in an excellent location, with a bank across the street from it and two blocks from the beach. I don't want to stay there longer than three nights, however, and I foundanother hotel in the western part of Copacabana for the last seven nights that would cost a total of $957.00 for the three of us, or $45.57 per night per person - most than twice the other hotel, but it is a suite, and everyone would get a double or queen bed. It's also close to the beach, and it has a kitchen as well, which I think might be nice, although I do want to spend most of my time eating out. I have to convince Dean that the second hotel is worth the price. To reserve the second hotel, I will not have the option of canceling the reservation, and so I have to confirm it before I reserve it. The second hotel is quite spacious.

Just as clarification, in Canada there is a line-up, but you stand in line.

Lars, I think the kitchen would be nice, even if you want to eat out most of the time. It's there if you want to make a cup of coffee or tea, or have a snack. Sometimes it's also nice to just have a quick breakfast or a small late meal before or after an especially busy day.

I'm glad Kevin is excited about going, it just makes travelling even more fun.

I just read an article on line about cookware and it said that Brazil made nice copper cookware, so that could make some fun window shopping, even if you don't bring any back.

Annie

I ended up booking a different hotel in Copacabana for the last seven nights, and the advantage is that it has two bedrooms. The link is from airbnb.com, but I booked it through booking.com for a better price. The apartment is larger than my house, and the kitchen looks very nice. I think we will be very comfortable there.

I will make a point to look for copper cookware, but I do not want to be carrying all that much back with me.

ETA: I changed my first hotel (for the first three nights) to this hotel, still in Ipanema. It costs a bit more - about $40 a day - but it is much more spacious and has two bedrooms, whereas the other hotel just had one room. I would not mind staying in the other hotel for one night or maybe two, but I think three nights is too much for such a cramped space. I think we will be closer to better restaurants and bars at the new hotel.

The pictures of the new one that you linked to in Ipanema look very nice. The kitchen is small, but you want to eat out much of the time so I'm sure that won't be a problem.

The Copacabana penthouse looks very spacious, so I'm sure you'll be comfortable there with the extra room.

Travel safely!

Annie