Мне на самом деле всегда было любопытно ощутить на своей шкуре понять, чем именно Латинская Америка отличается от Европы. Например... когда я начала планировать свой трип в Аргентину, я неоднократно читала, что Буэнос-Айрес - самый "европейский" город ЛА. Так вот что такое "европейский" в данном случае - я одним местом чувствую, а объяснить, в деталях, не могу.

Попросила Андре рассказать мне про то, чем Рио отличается от европейских городов. Он был в Европе много раз, и в довольно "выразительных" городах, типа Лондона, Парижа, так что сравнить ему есть с чем. Про Сингапур я тоже слышала всякое разное. Ответ был не настолько глубоким, насколько я хотела бы - скорее очевидным, но тем не менее я поделюсь. Мне кажется, такие вещи всегда интересны с точки зрения местного жителя. Снова без перевода, неанглоговорящие друзья, сорри.

читать дальшеAbout Rio. I could give the short answer, the long answer but I
will give the golden mean answer. Rio is not safer or more dangerous
than ... New York, I would say. We are just not good on hiding this.
From ourselves. Let me start by blaming the others (it's always easier
). Colombia is the largest producer of cocaine in the world. USA and
Europe are good markets. And Rio has a lot of tourists going in and
out. So ... Rio is a nice route for entering and leaving "unnoticed"
to get drugs from Colombia and send them to the rest of the world.

Now that I blamed the others, I will blame ourselves here. Drugs go
through here so, drugs can also stay here. The biggest problem we have
here regarding violence is related to drug lords. We have severe laws
against guns and drug dealers (but not users) but ... we also have a
huge extension of frontiers inside a heavy dense forest with countries
who don't give a shit about guns (damn, i am still blaming the others)
so, this makes Rio a nice place to sell drugs. And things get a bit
odd here. So, I would not say Brazil is not a safe place, Rio is the
big trouble (and São Paulo, but that city is not worth talking about
). Now, if you want some comparisons: I was in London and
Paris and Naples. London and Paris are for sure safer, but I am pretty
sure that there are places would no sane person would go during the
night on those places. The same here. It is not the whole town, just
places. I also visited Vancouver. Canada. Funny thing. I asked a lady
there about safety and she said: this is the safest city in the world.
And I told her about my hotel and she said: huh, be careful there.
I also went to Singapore once. Funny place. When you arrive
there, they give you those papers to fill in the airplane. And there
is no "Welcome to Singapore" but only a "Drug trafficking is punished
with death penalty". Beautiful place, nice people, but you can't chew
gums and kiss on streets. And they still have some crimes that are
punished with canning. No crimes. But no freedom.