Not a good time to visit Brazil

BTW having a Brazilian wife is completely irrelevant. It doesn't make you an authority on Brazil. Clearly.

Are you kidding? There are plenty of Thai and Indian restaurants... run by Thai and Indian people. It may require a bit of effort and a bit of money, but it's not rocket science. In fact, I was just at a great one last week: http://maharaj.com.br

Second, and it's hard to believe someone could be so clueless about this, I am not Brazilian in any way. I'm a visitor here, but one who actually spent the time to figure out a bit about the country instead of biotching and whining about it. If a typical street market in Rio has stall after stall of peppers and spices (including freshly ground black pepper), yet you only know "one" person who enjoys these, how does that make any sense? Even every Subway in the country has a big canister of both black pepper and red pepper behind the counter. Why? Because people like it.

Most food is meat and starch? I know of dozens of vegetarian buffets in Rio alone with literally hundreds of fruits, veggies, legumes, nut, and other dishes... caldo verde, picadillo, moqueca, delicious salpicão . It's incredibly varied and could be a great opportunity to go out and make some friends at a dining hall apart from your "one cousin." I get it that if someone only knows the word "carne" in Portuguese it might be a bit tough to ask for anything else, and if you're eating on a shoestring budget then you're not going to get the best quality meals, but just as you incorrectly assumed I was Brazilian, you're simply dead wrong about the entire country and its cuisine... crime is a "dinner topic?" What does that even mean??? The US and England are also wracked with crime and homelessness. Welcome to planet earth.

Newsflash: they don't speak English because it's not their language (though to be fair, many, many Brazilians speak excellent English, and the people badmouthing them in this thread simply don't know any better). Anyone expecting to come to Bolivia, Brazil, or Burma and expect to be spoken to in English by everyone in the country is just an insufferable burden on us all.

...that said, back to the original topic, it ISN'T the greatest time to visit Brazil, though the strikes aren't too disruptive (and nothing like the chaos that I've seen in other countries like Mexico and Peru). Is WC a bad time to be here if you're not interested in football? Probably. Is inflation going wild, and the exchange rate much lower than it used to be, making the country more expensive to visit? Yep. Guess the bottom line is that it isn't a country for people who enjoy a bit of challenge... and for them, there's always cruise ships where everyone will speak English to you all day long.

Expensive, very expensive, strikes, few people who understand basic english (do not count Spanish knowledge) are disappointed and not receptive to tourists. That is my opinion to this comunity of travelers who, like me, travel with a low budge.

Nice trolling there mate.

@ vidic15 you insult me. Here at Thorn Tree I have got valuable information which helped me in my travels to Greece, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Paris & London. Perhaps I posted silly topics such as the price of BigMac in Paris & London, other more relevant such as how to travel to Turkey during Ramadan (first Muslim country I visited, an extraordinary experience) or how to expect from the russian cops in Moscow and St.Petesburg (I've no problems). I I'm not trolling. I was born and live all my 50 years in Niteroi (in the other side Guanabara bay, opposite Rio de Janeiro town) I travel with a Brazilian passaport and a Portuguese passaport but the more important thing I learned is that I belonged to a small planet.
But let me focus about travelling in Brazil during World Cup:
DER SPIEGEL (12.5.2014) cover "Tod und Spiele" (Death and Games).
LIBÉRATION (16.mai.2014) "Des incidents ont éclaté à São Paulo, où doit se dérouler le match d'ouverture, le 12 juin".
THE GUARDIAN (16.May.2014) "Anti-World protests across Brazil: Latest showing of sour national mood towards tournament in country racked by strikes, crime and anger at wealth disparities."
Not a good time to visit Brazil !

http://en.mercopress.com/2014/05/30/end-protests-against-the-world-cup-whatever-money-has-gone-has-been-spent-or-stolen-already

#14, not sure if it's a language barrier thing, but you really are trolling hard... obviously some sort of personal/political feelings but whatever. The links you've posted contain no reasons why Brazil isn't a good place to visit (apart from the fact that the World Cup is going to be disruptive... boo ho). Yes, there is wealth disparity in Brazil... as there is across all of Latin America and the world in general. "Few people who understand English" is simply not a good reason to not visit a country; never has been, never will be.

#14, not sure if it's a language barrier thing, but you really are trolling hard... obviously some sort of personal/political feelings but whatever. The links you've posted contain no reasons why Brazil isn't a good place to visit (apart from the fact that the World Cup is going to be disruptive... boo ho). Yes, there is wealth disparity in Brazil... as there is across all of Latin America and the world in general. "Few people who understand English" is simply not a good reason to not visit a country; never has been, never will be.

Corisco (and probably quite a few others) like this.

A most amusing thread, albeit for all the wrong reasons. I was beginning to think that comedy gold like the OP and skipperjamie's posts had been forever banished on the new TT.

Shame on you enroutesiglo! You are nothing but a tourist. Some of us travel with our eyes wide open and do not like what we see. Yes, it is political...boo hoo. I have bear witness to things in many countries. Heard the whispers of the people of Myanmar, talked to Vietnamese boat people I have seen the death squad cars patrolling the streets of Buenos Aires. Had a rifle pointed at me in Brasil, and seen guerillas on patrol in Guatemala. And all you can say is "there is wealth disparity" . Go to the beach, watch the string bikinis, and have some beer, screw some locals That is the real Brasil.
You all have missed the point on english...it is because the public school system is so shitty there that only the wealthy get a good education. Only the wealthy have access to good hospitals. To bad for the rest, right.

How can you understand those whispers if they don't do them in English? I doubt Spanish works for those either.

Only the wealthy have access to good hospitals.

a.k.a, Planet Earth minus Scandinavia. Gotta love it.

Go to the beach, watch the string bikinis, and have some beer, screw some locals That is the real Brasil.

Huh? Wait... is this post about legalizing weed? Because I concur.