Brazil Summary

May 12, 2026

This country is a lot to talk about. We had some of our favorite moments of the trip here, and Brazil wasn’t even part of our original, or updated South America plan! Also, our scariest moment of the trip happened here…We learned the Mercader Projection is a liar, and what being hot really means. And the plastic surgery! When most people are wearing next to nothing, the body modification really stands out. If you ever want to feel bad about your body, Brazil, specifically Rio is the place to go.

Days in Country: 96!! But 18 were in the USA

Miles Driven: 9,876

Nights spent indoors: 34! It was so hot, we made a rule when we got to the heat that we would spend every 4th night indoors so we wouldn’t go crazy. And 18 of these nights were in the USA, so really only 16 nights inside.

Things we weren’t expecting:

The main traffic control devices are round-a-bouts. They are in all the intersections, big, small, rural, big city, everywhere. Speaking of roads, they were either in pristine condition, or an absolute nightmare, nothing in between. They eat a ton of beef, almost entirely from Brahman cows. The ones with the hump. Very tasty. They also still have a lot of public pay phones. We didn’t try them to see if they work, but they’re everywhere like its 1998. And more cats than dogs! KoKo loved this.

People are very invested in their looks. The country seems very fitness conscious, there are gyms everywhere and people always out running, no matter the temperature. People also get dressed up for every day life, the opposite of super casual American dressing. Even when they’re only wearing a bathing suit, they’re still, somehow, dressed up. Excluding all the plastic surgery, there are a lot of genuinely beautiful people in this country, we were surprised by them. And a surprising number spoke English.

We were not expecting Carnival to be so incredible. We had talked about it early in our trip and decided we were indifferent. When we were invited, we waffled, and almost said no. This ended up being a top five experience for us. The party, the energy, the people, the costumes, the music. All of it was so intense, and genuine, and just so hard to accurately describe!

Things we didn’t enjoy:

It is so flippin’ hot all the flippin’ time. Even in the middle of the night. There would be a point where it would cool down enough for the fans to almost be helpful, but not enough so we could sleep. This is why we had the 4 day hotel rule. Our electronics didn’t love it either, our phones were constantly overheating, and spent a lot of time in the fridge.

Portuguese was also not our favourite, especially in northern Brazil where they spoke some Portuguese mixed with several native languages mixed together. Google translate was useless, and when we would tell people we didn’t speak Portuguese, they would just yell it at us louder and faster.

The roads are all long, straight lines, even in the back country. It was confusing, and boring. We also thought Brazil would be wilder, but instead, it was mostly clear cut farmland (those infomercials from the late 90’s weren’t kidding about Amazon rainforest destruction!). There were only small pockets of “wilderness”, and they felt very managed and protected. Which made more sense as we started to notice how much trash was everywhere. Like Peru, people here litter like crazy.

Tied with the heat, our least favorite part of Brazil was being on constant alert. Driving was extra work because every turn off the main road, every stop for gas or the bathroom needed to be extra researched to make sure we were staying in “safe” areas. The one time we were lax about this, we had a gun pointed at us, which was easily the scariest thing that happened to us the entire trip.

Some things we recommend:

Carnival!! Easily one or the best experiences of the entire trip!