I strongly urge people to be careful if driving in Rio and relying on GPS. Ever seen the episode of the Office where Michael drives into a lake because the GPS tells him to? Well, let's just say you could get yourself into a lot more trouble than that in Rio.
Recently, three Norwegian men had their GPS set to "quickest route" on their way back to Rio from Buzios, the GPS led them into a favela, and their car was shot at, the driver was wounded but luckily survived. The incident is being blamed on a faulty GPS system but I think it probably genuinely did show them the "fastest route"... not that it was a safe one!
Incidentally I know some people who were making the drive to Buzios and accidentally had their GPS set to "no tolls" so it directed them to go all the way around the bay rather than taking the Niteroi bridge. They quickly realized this and saved themselves several hours of travel in the process! (The toll is definitely worth it!!)
I used one of those things for the first time this summer adn hated it. It was fine for the highways but when we were in cities or towns it always took us the long way around.
Posted by: Typ0 | November 30, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Last week we went out to a party in Marica (about 20km past the Niteroi bridge) and having proudly put Brasil on my Garmin I decided it would be best to give it a go. We wound up on the unpaved road to hell for about 45 minutes and 7-10km without seeing one other car. Followed some friends back "the long way" and made it home to zona sul in about 30 minutes.
Btw.. I LOVE Rio!!
Posted by: Gringo Ze Carioca | December 09, 2008 at 07:50 AM