The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

From my last post you will see some of the great points about Brazil, but lets not think that its just smiles and sunshine here. Here, like anywhere has its bad points. So lets look a little closer at them.

Image via Wikipedia

For one there is the price of EVERYTHING... I regret to say it, but, it's to high... at least in comparison to the average national wage. Take electronics for example, lets say computers and cell phones. Back in Europe you can get a top of the line Nokia for 99 euro and get 99 euro credit free. So in essence the phone is free. It's a
clever marketing ploy to get the user to use that particular phone service, and it works.

HERE in Brazil you will pay R$600 ( around 250 euro) for a mid range phone and that includes IF YOUR LUCKY, R$15 credit.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Lets take a look at clothes now... for an average Adidas top, you could be expected to fork out R$200 for it, without certainty that its the real deal. Now, you may be thinking that R$200 is not a lot of money, its just about 75 euro, but in comparison to the average wage here.. its SUPER HIGH. So if you want to have sporty clothes here and dont have a lot of money, forget about it. There are however local clothes designers that are very modern and up to date with fashion and don't cost a lot at all, and that's a good thing because not only is it not as expensive but you also support the local economy.


Automobiles such as cars and motorbikes here they are, after you take into account the rate of exchange, not that bad, but if you compare it to the average wage here, again its very expensive and monthly installments are the norm. Monthly installments are nothing new in regards to cars all over the world, but here its for everything, from your shoes that you are wearing to the car your driving to the new bag you just bought and the holiday you just came back from, and expect to pay monthly installments from 6 months for clothes to 78 months for bigger things such as cars.

Image by gomezzz via Flickr

One last thing is the amount of toll bridges here and the prices. After you have visited the bank to pay one of your monthly installments for your car, top it off with high costing gasoline, or alcohol if your running flex.. (will post more on that in the future) the toll bridges in Sao Paulo state are many. Costing anywhere from R$2.60 all the way up to R$8.50 or more and you could be looking at 8 to 10 toll bridges to get to Sao Paulo city from your country home to see a concert of your favorite singer, that will cost R$100 for a ticket.

Image via Wikipedia

So at the end of the day... Brazil is beautiful, EXTREMELY beautiful in fact... but with a bitter taste that is not going away anytime soon without some reform.

As always it was a pleasure having you by.