There are roughly 80 mn females here of roughly 17 main different skintones. Tourism is big in all of Brazil's large cities I think. There are some gems here and there - and sometimes you find friendlier people at some small coastline village. Life in Rio and Sao Paulo is more expensive - but it's a more poor living farther north. Finding cheap love involves a more dangerous sightseeing - and then everyone loves getting a few extra from the "stupid foreigners". I think that Fortaleza and Natal are the bigger tourist cities in the northeast. Salvador is extraordinary good - with lots of interesting local food specialities - a best bet after churrasco. Recife is a big city with some nice attractions.
thanks guys for all the info. I have decided to go to either Recife or Fortaleza. Can someone give me the name of a hotel in both places? Im looking for one mid- price range hotel: not expensive and not a flea-bag, just something in the middle. thank guys.
Are you at least 50 years old? Good luck living there if you are not. Brazil will not allow citizens of many countries to stay there for more than six months in any calandar year. They are very strict about this. I have two different friends who married Brazilians to get around this. If you are at least 50, then no problem as you just get a retiremnet visa. Unfortunately, this is one of the things that Brazil really does enforce, as opposed to most 3rd world countries where you can just do 'visa runs", or some where you just ignore the law and stay as long as you like (Dominican Republic). Jay
I worked in SP for awhile. I didn't find it to be a huge bargain -- or particularly expensive for that matter. It can be a dangerous city -- especially for people that are obviously foreigners. As mentioned, all of the better buildings have gates,walls, security guard, and coded entries. If you really want to be safe, you will pay Western rates (imo). At first, I had the special car and driver to get to work each day. After awhile I just took a cab. However, there were plenty of areas I just wouldn't go and even in the better parts of town I'd always keep security consciousness up front. I c ould tell a few stories but why bother... The internet connections were fine back then and are even better now. I think you could set something decent up pretty easily if you lived in the "right" area. As mentioned, the currency fluctuates quite a bit. So, I'd also recommend an offshore account and just pulling in spending money. I had no problems using the ATM with a Mastercard or Visa. The women I met were all spectacular -- enough said there. I could certainly see going back to visit but I wouldn't want to live there for an extended period of time. If I needed to be there, I would also go with either the south or the north but not SP or Rio. However, tastes vary. Learn Portuguese before you go or from your girlfriend.
Gringinho ... you mentioned there were no credit lines on homes ... does this mean you pay cash for a house ??? Seriously, I own SaoPauloBlog.com (undeveloped - just the name) and was considering developing it ... which of course might contain real estate and mortgage ads ... as most city directories in the states do ... but i guess i have to rethink that now. I wonder how many countries this is true in (especialy in Central America and South America) ... as I own a good many country domains and large city domains. and 3.3% per month on car loans ??? forget trading and start a bank ... uh err lending service I've never lived outside the states but I always kinda wanted to try it. interesting site (not one of mine) over at internationalLiving.com where they name several top places and tell a little about each They call Panama the top retirement heaven - it never caught my eye They call Ecuador the cheapest place on earth - right now they are going thru a political crisis in that country - but it's always been unstable ... for a decade or two. I have friends there who love it and feel safe ... they say it's the land of eternal spring with beautiful weather. I like the sound of Honduras and Nicaragua though I guess you have to be careful where you go or be prepared to deal with things. If you guys have info on the following please share that as well (items like mortgage lending or such would be very helpful for my biz and I have domains there) I would probably only consider living in South or Central America although they say some of the kindest, most laid back people anywhere are in Australia ... so lets not mark them off our list. Belgium Bolivia Buenos Aries - Argentina Cairo Egypt Honduras Nicaragua Istanbul Turkey Jakarta Indonesia Lima Peru Manila Philippines Mexico City Saudi Arabia South Korea
Most 3rd World countries require you pay cash for homes. A friend of mine has bought three in the past year in NE Brazil for about 20K a pop. Point is, you pay cash, but they don't cost much. I lived in Quito Ecuador for three months. Great city, and cheap as hell. I rented a penthouse apartment for $300 per month. Its always been a mess there though. I got tear gassed while there. On the other hand, there was no crime that I was aware of. Felt quite safe to wander around in the middle of the night. Mex City has the worst air pollution on earth, and is dangerous as hell. Honduras is cool if you go to Rhotan (English speaking island off the coast. Cheap, but not a whole lot of infrastructure). I went diving there and loved the people. I am also considering Turkey, but on the Adriatic Coast, Cesme area. Beautiful, cheap, safe. Easy to stay as long as you like (visa run to Greek Island of Chios a few miles away once every 3 months). Also thinking of NE Brazil. Doing a scouting trip in August. Can only stay 6 months per year though. And finally, just thinking of moving back to San Francisco. Sort of a foreign country in its own right. Yep, very indecisive. This damn career actually gives too much freedom. Makes you decide where to live rather than being told. Jay
Anybody go to Salvador Baihia? I know somebody that went there recently and swears by the place but he tends to be full of shit. He claims to have lived like a king for three weeks on like $1500. He also claims that it is fairly safe and quite a few people now English.
Do not compare the attitude of Brazillians to Jamaicans. Jamaicans have no problems with white people. Jamaica has a long tourism history and a good reputation with vacationers from North America, Europe and the rest of the world. There are thieves in Jamaica and they will snach your stuff if they can. When in Jamaica stay away from the ghetto areas, and do not get taken in by guys on the street who want to make deals, or to take you into dingy areas for ganja , or whatever else. Stay in the resort areas.