We Heart Taxi's in Brazil.

For those of us not in the heli-pool...

Taxi's are a great way to get around Rio de Janeiro.

Although part of our "expat package" is supposed to include a car and driver, neither of us has been too antsy about getting it all lined up.  Why? Because in Rio, taxi service is great.  It's always available, cheap, easy, and guilt free... (I hired a driver the other day to go shopping and I just hated leaving him to wait in the parking lot the whole time while I went in and shopped... I felt guilty!)

 

We may never get around to arranging for that car and driver for a number of reasons:

1) I like to walk everywhere I possibly can.

2) On the occasions when I need a driver I can just book one for the day or a few hours very easily, or I can take cabs.

3) My husband has such an irregular schedule that taking cabs to work has suited him just fine so far.

4) We enjoy the taxi drivers here for many reasons:

   a) They are the salt of the earth and ALWAYS complimentary of my horrible Portuguese. And they can be good Portuguese teachers too, without knowing it!

   b) They are for the most part good and honest - my husband once left his blackberry in the back of a cab in Sao Paulo, and the driver came back an hour later to bring it to him, after realizing it was in his back seat.

   c) They always oblige to provide that critical "recebo" (receipt) and are never in too much of a hurry to help.

 

These examples are all just our experiences, and I realize we have been extremely lucky.  There are rogue taxi drivers out there but we have not encountered any.  To protect tourists, there are pre-pay taxi stations when you get off the plane, etc.

 

But in the South Zone, taxis are plentiful as it's kind of like Manhattan, or a European city here. Not many drive, and the streets run yellow as they are flooded with cabs. As there are no roads in most favelas, favela dwellers don't drive either.    

Comments

[Rachel]

I'm glad you guys have gotten lucky. Taxi drivers about 50% of the time try to take advantage, be it of Cariocas or tourists. And don't get me started on the ones that try to take you to the jewelry stores. Taking cabs is much more risky, in terms of getting ripped off, if you speak no Portuguese.

[DRL]

Yeah we generally are quite lucky, but we must really be as my husband is taking them daily to and from work (although I think this post may have jinxed us, he says he is starting to find them tiresome and wants to find another means of getting around) and we have yet to have anyone even be rude let along an "incident"... fingers crossed!

[DRL]

I should probably mention as well that "where we come from" it is damn near impossible to even get a taxi- up to a half hour wait at any given time (yes, we live in a city... I know it is ridiculous!), which is probably part of why we are so enthralled with the taxi situation here so far!