In the run up to my trip to Brazil I was very excited, but also a little apprehensive. After all, Brazil has a slightly fearsome reputation for crime. That may be partially deserved in some restricted areas, but my own experience of the country and people was universally positive. Any country has cities with slightly dodgy areas, which you are wise to avoid, or travel through with caution. I can honestly say that I've felt less safe and more threatened in parts of Birmingham and London than anywhere I went in Brazil^1^.

Can you imagine that kind of thing happening in the UK?

^1^ To give you some context to my comments (and for the rest of my posts about Brazil), I spent the first few days at our base in a small town about 3 hours from Sao Paulo with a large group of people from the University, then travelled with them to the Pantanal for a further few days. They then returned to their base and I stayed on in the Pantanal on my own for 10 days. Finally, I travelled back to meet up with the group for the last couple of days. ↑