Riowakening

Brazil through an Australian's eyes

If Madonna can do a Rio de Janeiro favela tour so can you

Normal one day, crazy the next. This would be the honest slogan for Rio favela tours, ripping off Queensland's era-defining "beautiful...

The battle for school children learning in Rio’s favelas

Back earlier in the year I had the pleasure to do a story on the work of the Mais Caminhos charity in Rio's Ipanema just around the...

20 Brazil and Rio tips for travellers visiting for a holiday

If you’re thinking of coming on a holiday to Brazil and Rio it's a great life choice to make, believe me. There can be a lot to get...

"A good criminal is a dead criminal": Rio's civil war

"A good criminal is a dead criminal." That’s the meaning of the Portuguese words “um bandido bom é um bandido morto” on the lips of...

Murdered in Rio: A tourist’s wrong turn into hell

An Italian tourist who took a wrong turn into a favela and wound up dead with a bullet in his head today is another reminder of the...

Is Brazil safe to travel? Why tourists shouldn't worry

A newspaper front page with a little girl covered in her dead mother’s blood declared “Terrorism in Rio is everyday”. In the grisly...

Brazilian crime is prime time television

Brazil has turned its big time crime problem into prime time television. Taking the lead expertly from the USA, cameras chase Brazil’s...

You're safer in Rio's favelas than near its beaches

Walking through a Rio de Janeiro favela I was told by my resident guide that the order from the most senior gangsters is to not lay a...