I remember my first visit to Guatemala. In my way to hotel, a big bank robbery was happening. 17-15 people, with grenades and machines-guns, were on the run. City downtown was a complete chaos, a battlefield, it was like a Hollywood movie. Have been back there a couple of times; houses still have rolled barbed wires on the walls (same as South Africa); saw a security guard on the roof of a small mall holding a rifle. Despite of that, this is one of the most gorgeous places I know, great people. I will gladly be back there. Central America is great.
UAE is one of the safest places in the world, last year though, a teenager French boy was raped by locals in the desert of Dubai (Gulfnews: Mother of French rape victim thrown out of Dubai court). And this is a tiny country with strict rules and only 4 million people, from which 3 million are expats. Nevertheless, this is not representative of the country, nice, locals extremely friendly. The first time I got lost in Dubai traffic, a local heard and said “follow me” and he just drove all the way to the exit, to guide me. Where in the world we find people like that? Every time I come back, the passport officials greet me with a “Welcome back!”. Quite different from the bad mood types in Brazil, guys there seems to hate their job. Not only there, last year, leaving Las Vegas, “got lucky” to be chose to go through the lane that ends up in a small chamber that blows air to detect any sort of explosive traces. Well, I just asked each lane I should get, and the official started shouting at me…very nice. Back to Dubai, quite expensive; would not buy anything here because: a) overpriced and out of my budget; b) bit depressing.
Thailand is kind of mirror of Brazil, packed with European tourists. Lots have to make connections in Dubai/Qatar to go there. Also tricks are played on the tourists. At the end, a fantastic place to visit and live. I even meet a British guy working as a Tourist Police in Pattaya, so in love he fell for the country. Salaries in Thailand are much lower than Brazil. Thailand is great, cannot wait to go there again with my family.
Seems to me that NE of Brazil have a similar potential, if a few of these projects get out of the ground. That is my two cents, just my impression. Still considering a Villa in a condominium in Natal or Recife. Starting with a rent, may be ok until get to know the serious off-plan developers. Finish constructions are no problem.

Just got finished seeing an interview with an economist in Sao Paulo on the floor of the Bovespa exchange. Brazil has had some recent inflation and Banco Central will be raising the SELIC rate which is already the highest on the planet, hence raising interest rates.

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Deb...have you looked at the prices at the pump lately? Today in Aracaju Alcool is 1.83 per litre!

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RalphJ,

That's bad news and, once again, shows the unlimited government "talent" to screw things up. Certainly, Lula is not doing his homework of cutting government spending, bureaucracy priviligeous, and open up more the economy. But for a country that saw just few years back short-run interest rate of 27 %, we should survive a rate increase that may reach 12.5% by year end.

Lulas visit to Holland yesterday was pleasant.He mentioned that prices of food have gone up in Brasil because more people are eating food.That sounds intelligent!

Ralph, Mike, Dotty, Debs, Sao P and the people living in Brazil,

Whats the more cheaper to run in Brazil in your experience? Petrol around R$2.6 and alchool around R$1.8 , but alchool burns quicker! so which is the most efficient against cost?
Cheers
Paul

Guys,

Get outside the box! If you live in Brazil, why not take a few weeks and head up to DR, or down to Argentina, or perhaps an unknown island in the Caribbean.... Try Colombia, etc. You never know what you might find.... you already know Brazil. Mix it up... why not? What do you have to lose? Stay in hostels, walk instead taxis, etc. Rest assured you have lsss scamming in the Latin countries around Brazil.

Just this week happened riots in Egypt and Indonesia due to food shortage/price increases in rice & bread. Phillipines received an emergency rice delivery. Since commodities prices are growing quite fast around the world (not only oil jumped 300% last 4 years), mainly because of the fantastic growth rates of China and India. We are talking about a combined population of 2 billion 500 millions, from each a considerable part is leaving the poverty line. And that means, yes, eating more.

But in general I agree, we can fill a book with Lula non-senses, at least comedians have plenty of material...

Guys,

Get outside the box! If you live in Brazil, why not take a few weeks and head up to DR, or down to Argentina, or perhaps an unknown island in the Caribbean.... Try Colombia, etc. You never know what you might find.... you already know Brazil. Mix it up... why not? What do you have to lose? Stay in hostels, walk instead taxis, etc. Rest assured you have lsss scamming in the Latin countries around Brazil.

If I can quote a long time buddy Carioca (Rio native) I've known since 2004 like a brother, he tells me every time, "never, never trust a brazilian, only trust after a long time, and you know his/her family many years, where he/she lives.... in the US, how many people you trust to do business? Ok, here in Brazilian you should trust ten fold less."

Hi Raimundo,

To get to Argentina from the N.E costa about 2,400 reais thats the same as travelling to Europe !Crazy at it may sound but true.What are the prices of property in D.R?That will probably cost 4,000 reais to get to or there about.