First of all, let me say that I’m sorry to hear that you were mugged. If I had to single out one negative aspect of our visit to RN and CE, it would be the security systems around houses. In the South someone has to look hard to find a beach house with anything besides a wall; things we saw in the NE are illegal, for instance, broken glasses on top of a wall. The kite instructor told me that it makes look worst than it really is; I don’t know about that, but statistics are showing decreasing in violence in Brazil, though still high (
Brazil | Not as violent as you thought | Economist.com ); a similar article was published by the Financial Times a couple of months ago. Recently a Law to legalize abortion was rejected after a strong lobby from religious groups, in particular, evangelics. The law was partially inspired by the arguments put forward by a Univ. of Chicago economist who states that the main (but not the only) cause of violence reduction in the US was the legalization of abortion a generation ago instead of popular explanations like growth, more police, zero tolerance, and so on. The RJ Governor was citing this study. I’m aware of the sensitiveness of the subject, anyone offended, please refer to the book (“Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt) not me.
Salvador: to be fair, the most violent big city in Brazil is supposed to be Recife, not Salvador, RJ or SP. Anyway, I have friends with beach houses near Recife and Salvador, and they are quite happy. But it seems things haven’t change in terms of harassing tourists there, it was the same way 10 years ago. In Natal and Cumbuco I found the beach sellers quite different, they usually kept certain distance from the tourists, and if they ask if you want something, they don’t insist at all; besides, they were selling things that, eventually, could be handy (hats, sunscreens, coconut water,…). I chatted a bit with the guy that was doing a temporary tattoo in my daughter, a quite cool person with a very good sense of humor, I’m glad he was there.