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→Hitchhiking
'''Brazil''' is a country in [[South America]]. It has a border with every country on the continent except [[Chile]] and [[Ecuador]]. Brazil is a huge country and [[hitchhiking]] depends a lot on the area as to how receptive people will be and your chances in getting rides. Some Brazilians consider their country violent and dangerous, in part due to the media's love of seizing stories and exaggerating them.
== Hitchhiking == In Brazil, hitchhiking is referred to as ''pegar uma carona'', which means taking a ride. On roadsides, care must be taken because of the erratic ways of Brazilian motorists. Many use the slip lanes to overtake traffic or swerve to allow others past. Hitchhiking on motorways is not illegal, but if you just follow the common rules, like hitchhiking in a place where the cars can stop, you'll be fine. Having a sign with the city that you are heading is a great idea and will definitely increase your chances of getting a ride. === Tax offices ===One of the best things about Brazil are the truck tax offices (Postos fiscais). These are buildings along a highway, usually in a city or town which is a border with another Brazilian state, but sometimes along the route. Truckers who use that route generally have to stop and get their papers stamped at a window. The staff are generally hitchhiker-friendly, so you can stand outside the window with a sign or ask the drivers for rides. === Gas Stations ===You can get rides easily by asking drivers at [[Gas stations]] (Postos de gasolina). Attendants are usually friendly and let you sleep behind them. In the north, they tend to have free coffee and showers too! === Police Stations ===Some cities have federal police stations alongside with the road, they are called PRF (Polícia Rodoviária Federal). Every car that passes by those stations (which are always yellow and blue) reduce the speed, so it's a great place to hitchhike. You can also talk with the police officers, which are usually friendly and help you getting a ride.
== Regions ==
=== License plates ===
Note that vehicles license plates are different, depending on where the car was issued. It starts with the state abbreviation and follows with numbers. This way you can also somehow figure out where the vehicle is going to. Usually the name of the state is written in small letters at the top, but this is harder to see. {|class="wikitable"|-! Abbr! State! Abbr! State! Abbr! State|-* PA is |AC|[[Acre]]|MA|[[Maranhão]]|RJ|[[ParaRio de Janeiro]]* PR is |-|AL|[[ParanáAlagoas]]* SC is |MG|[[Santa CatarinaMinas Gerais]]* RJ is |RN|[[Rio Grande do JaneiroNorte]]|-|AM|[[Amazonas]]|MS|[[Mato Grosso do Sul]]|RO|[[Rondônia]]|-|AP|[[Amapá]]|MT|[[Mato Grosso]]|RR|[[Roraima]]|-|BA|[[Bahia]]* SP is |PA|[[Sao PaoloPará]]* |RS is |[[Rio Grande Do do Sul]]* |-|CE|[[Ceará]]|PB|[[Paraíba]]|SC|[[Santa Catarina]]|-|DF|[[Distrito Federal]]|PE|[[Pernambuco]]|SE|[[Sergipe]]|-|ES is |[[Espírito Santo]](List incomplete)|PI|[[Piauí]]|SP|[[São Paolo]]|-|GO|[[Goiás]]|PR|[[Paraná]]|TO|[[Tocantins]]|}
=== Cities ===
* [[Aracaju]]
* [[Barreirinhas]]
* [[Belo Horizonte]]
* [[Belém]]
* [[Fortaleza]]
* [[Foz do Iguaçu]]
* [[Jericoacoara]]
* [[Joao Pessoa]]
* [[Maceió]]
* [[Recife]]
* [[Rio de Janeiro]]
* [[São LuizLuis]]
* [[São Paulo]]
* [[Salvador, Brazil|Salvador]]
* [[Teresina]]
* [[Vitória]]
== Border Crossings ==
=== To Paraguay ===
User [[User:MOAH|MOAH]] hitchhiked over the Guaíra/Salto del Guaíra border to Paraguay, but as it is a major shopping area for Brazilians to buy cheap Chinese products in the noman's land, you won't get a stamp at the actual border. Instead, you have to go to the office of the Brazilian Policia Federal in Guaíra town, at the roundabout (Address: Praça Castelo Branco, s/n - Centro, Guaíra - PR, 85980-000, Brazil. Telephone: +55 44 3642-9100), which has super irregular opening times. If you press the bell, someone might open the gate and you can start the check-out process. The people here speak good English (!!!). From there it's a short walk to the 3600m bridge crossing from Paraná state to Mato Grosso state, where there's a semi-functional police control from where one can hitch the 12km to the actual Paraguayan border. A sign saying "PY" will do the trick. The noman's land is about 6km long, but you can catch a ride in between with friendly Paraguayans to Salto del Guaíra, where you again have to find some office to get your check-in stamp. This is a tiny shitty office with a well-hidden "Migracion" sign located on Avenida Bernardino Caballero c/ La Paz, Ciudad de Salto del Guairá (Telephone: (595) 046 - 243 536) with a permanently bored employee who will ask you how long you'll stay. Again, there's very irregular opening times, so you might have to stay the night to get your stamp. Don't cross this border on a Sunday. Enjoy the amazing kebab-like streetfood (about €0.90) on the Paraguayan side!
== Roadways ==
As in many countries in Latin America, firemen (bombeiros) will often put you up on a bunk or sofa for a night if you ask nicely.
On the road you might see many signs for motels, but a motel doesn't have the same meaning as in other countries, as they are strictly used for pre-marital sex/cheating. They are rented per x hours, which is an indicator that this is a sketchy place. When you're hitchhiking alone as a woman and your driver asks you if you want to stay at a motel, he's propositioning you for sex so its better to get the hell out of there. There's also plenty of roadside hotels that function more like a regular motel and are paid per full night. If you're hitchhiking as a male-female duo, the receptionist might ask you if you two are married and if you say no they will probably push separate rooms on you, as experienced by [[User:MOAH|MOAH]]
== Personal experiences ==
* ''[https://warmroads.de/en/hitchhiking-in-7-brazil/ Short anlyses of hitchhiking in Brazil - warmroads.]
* ''If you are friendly and avoid drunk drives, along with avoid showing that you have valuable things you will be fine. Once it got dark with me on the roadside with nothing close by, and people took some time to give me a ride. When the car stopped it was with 4 somewhat drunk guys with loud music. I felt it was going to be okay so I went with them (keep in mind it is a tiny city!) and nothing happened, not even sex proposals. In a couple of occasions there was unauthorized groping, but a firm yet polite response kept them from trying anything else. In some days there was a lot of sex proposals, some even offering money. They insist once or twice but when they see there is no chance they will (at least in my experience) respect you. Twice truck drivers that kept insisting heard from me a "so let me get down anywhere, I am not hitchhiking for that". Well, they said "ok, sorry, no need to get down, I am not going to insist anymore". With one of them we even changed subject and got quite a nice conversation. Most, a least for Portuguese speakers, just start talking about themselves and their personal life. One of them even let me sleep on his truck while he went home. They often offer to buy meals at barbecue diners in roadsites, with rice, bean, meat, salad and possible other options (I often just drink an orange juice, since I am a raw foodist and take food with me all the time, like nuts and specially bananas - this one is a good idea for cheap energetic food, which often you can get for free in small markets if they are overripe, if you ask the price it will often be half or free. I lived on bananas and avocados for several days once before I was raw, not very fun but with a stronger kick than fast food...).'' -A personal story of a Brazilian 20 year old girl hitchhiking alone
* ''Something I learned as a woman hitchhiking through Brazil alone is that certain highways (I heard it was mostly on the BR 116, Rio-Salvador, for example) have women that are highway prostitutes that wait to be picked up on the side of the road. Traveling with truck drivers alone I also learned that many of them pick up hitchhikers that also become lovers, mostly locals from smaller towns who wait on the highways to leave town and go on an adventure. But it is usually easier to tell the difference between hitchhikers and women wanting rides for sex, and of course communication is important. I think it's important to know that these incidents are common because you understand where people are coming from when the subject arises. I never had problems with males drivers and truck drivers but I have definitely had them ask for sex, the program ("not even with a condom?" yuck...), what not. I think being clear with drivers before is important and making sure you feel safe is important too. But again, I hitched almost 5000 km alone in Brazil, no problem, it is incredibly liberating and easy! Go adventure! :)'' -[[User:Yayael|Yaya]]
* User "[[User:Miriam|Miriam]] hitched around the south of Brazil for several weeks on her own in 2017 without running into major problems, met only super nice and friendly people, got rides easily and was never confused for a prostitute or treated without respect, as the above contributors sadly experienced. Two minor problems were: 1.) People automatically assuming hitchhikers are Argentinian and staying clear because of the rivalry between both countries (sadly). If you're a non-argentinian foreigner, consider carrying your country's flag! 2.) Lots and lots of traffic on giant, unstoppable highways. If possible, stick to nice and cozy interior roads which makes for amazing experiences on it's own! :)"
==Links==
