The Shoe Shit Scam
While walking down along Atlantica, the main road running parallel to the beach in Copacabana, a shoe shine guy with a keen eye spotted some shit that had gotten on my shoes. He pulled me aside to wipe it off, which I agreed to, figuring he wanted a few reals which I didn't mind parting with. After wiping it off, he proceeded to pull out the polish and brush. I told him no several times, but let him proceed when he said no charge. I tried to get away (I was meeting StayawayJoe), but he insisted on tidying up the other shoe, again insisting no fee. Afterwards, I handed him 4 reals, about $1.50 US, but he said that it wasn't enough. He then flashed a price on his small stool of 20 reals, approximately $8.00 US, and an absolutely ridiculous price for a shoe shine. I argued with him for a while before finally giving his a total of 12 reals, around $5.50. He was still arguing, but I refused to give him any more than that. When I told StayawayJoe, he would inform me that some of them would follow tourists and fling the shit on the shoe themselves. Well, at least it only cost me $5. I would lose three times as much later in Argentina.

Safety
For me, Brazil is one of the most fun places in the World, (and I've been around) but I can't say it is the safest. Nothing happened to me, but StayAwayJoe had a potentially close call in which two young men ran into the road in an attempt to stop the taxi he was in, the taxi driver swerved around them. Also at least 3 of the girls I spoke with brought up the crime problem; two had been robbed and one was attacked and still had a scar on her face from the attack. SAJ also told me the story of a guy he met that was robbed at broken bottle point by two or three men. They stripped him down to his underwear, so money hiding wouldn't have done any good.

Please be safe. I suggest the following, others may have more ideas.

1. Carry what you need and maybe a little bit extra. If your plans are to bring a girl back to your room, leave her share in the room, but be sure to have enough for taxi fare, cover charges, and bar fines.
2. Don't walk around alone, particulary when the sun STARTS to go down. Taxis are much less expensive than getting robbed. Don't let short distances make you overconfident.
3. If you do run into a situation, don't fight.
4. If you decide to rent an apartment, make sure you first become familiar with the scams and criminal activity that can take place. (this deserves it's own special discussion and will not be covered in this report)
5. Keep all your valuables (particularly your passport and money) in a secure place.
6. Don't drink too much, don't do any illegal drugs.
7. If you become a Rio vet (and you probably will if you ever make that first trip) don't let familiarity with the place make you overconfident and less vigilent. Crime victims are often those that least expect it. (because they never had problems before)

d'Art,

The same thing happenned to me with the shoe shit scam, but I refused to pay the guy. It was clear to me that he was the one that threw it on my shoe. This was at 2pm in the afternoon. In general if a guy comes up to you and starts talking English, he is probably up to no good.

BT

d"Artagnan:
I had two episodes with shoe shine guys:
1) A young kid (9-10 yrs old) asked me if I wanted my shoes shined, I said sure. After applying a little polish on the front of my shoe and wiping it off, he said "thirty dollars", I said, "here's two." Makes the shoeshiners in TJ look pretty honest.
2) I had the shit throwing incident happen to me in front of Meia Pataca. Since I was already aware of the shit flinging beforehand, and when approached by one, I told him to go ahead and clean it. After he cleaned it, I walked away and told him that I knew his gig.

I knew not wearing shoes would pay off one day...

d'Artagnan--good stuff ...it makes me feel good I chose correctly right out of the blocks when I read reports from you guys that have been to a few places....

ps..Indy/eli... Nice!!!

I was wearing sandals, it was a pretty good shot that he didn't get any of it on my foot.

I don't even know if it was shit. It was supposed to be bird shit, but looked more like dirt and grass rolled together.

Layne, you should still visit some other places, but you will still probably miss the termas. If you like Asian women, you definitely have to visit Thailand to experience the soapy.

ohh yeah confuse me again...I am so afraid to venture into another unknown as long as Rio is so much fun...I know I need to ...

Yeah, I'm addicted to the termas as well. I'm not sure if I'll ever make it anywhere but Rio (that is my kinda problem)

Just to let one and all know, the shit flingers are still there, and very gifted. I still don't know how he got me.

Thanks for the info. I'll be going there in January.

http://br.news.yahoo.com/050710/25/vlhg.html

At least 20 guests of the Colonial Hotel, in Macaé, in the Fluminense North, they were surprised by four attackers in the dawn. The gang, still formed by other three criminals that stayed in a car, it took about of R$ 30 thousand among money (real, dollars and euros), apparels of cellular, laptops and jewels.

After they dominate the receptionist, the attackers searched the box and all the rooms that were busy. The assault was prolonged from the midnight at four in the dawn. The hotel works in the neighborhood of Imbetiba, in front of the beach, and he/she has 62 apartments.