Is Latin America ACTUALLY Dangerous To Travel In?

[12ressiMorP]

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in depends on the current state of revolution in each country. I think Bolivia is more dangerous than any of those place.

you want to avoid areas controlled by rebels and machine gun toting banditos.

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QFT

It really depends on what country and what part of said country you plan on visiting. Going to Brazil or Argentina shouldn't be an issue. If you plan on going to Colombia bring some weapons.

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Brazil? What about Touristas !??!?!?!

[Sciolist]

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taxi is generally dirt cheap unless you get into one of those 'special' taxis. We got into one during the day and asked him to put on the meter. The meter jumped at about 10x the regular speed. We got the hell out of there. Lesson learned.

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I managed to pay 10x the fare in my first CR taxi ride, as I didn't know the spanish for 100 or thousand. The problem was, it was actually quite cheap by London standards...

[KLLions]

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and wha thappened to the pepole kidnaped?

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They paid large sums of money to have them returned. These people were all worth over $200mm-$2bn or so, if not much more. $5m or whatever would seem to be a no-brainer.

I didn't press for details on their condition when returned, it seemed like they were not too badly treated, but you never know.

[CostaRicaBill]

Costa Rica - very safe and hot chicks
Nicaragua - pretty safe, chicks more indigenous, watch out for Hep A
El Salvador - you might get kidnapped
Honduras - you might get killed or shot
Colombia - stay in the city, it's pretty safe, but don't go to the rural areas, if you do, you can leave your neteller password with me just in case

[dinopoker]

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Been to several countries in Latin and South America and haven't been kidnapped yet. I just got back from Colombia last week, yes it's still on the US list of countries not to go to, but I made it back just fine. I don't blend in, I get stared at everywhere I go, and my spanish is pretty poor. Most of the time the locals are just curious WTF are these two gringos doing in the middle of no where.

Been to Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Costa Rica and multiple times to some of these countries. I'm planning my next trip already.

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I was in Cali, Columbia about 6 years ago and I had no problems. I didn't speak a lick of Spanish either, so I arranged for the company I was meeting with to have someone pick me up at the airport. I hung out with some of their senior managers while I was there and I thought that their city was very, very nice. Obviously they're all educated and have good jobs/cars/apartments, so we didn't venture into the ghetto areas at all, but I found the downtown area where I was very comfortable to walk around in. I was in the Hotel Dann, I believe.

BTW, I found that through knowing English and a little French, I was able to make out a lot of Spanish. That also made things a lot easier as I was a little paranoid initially about not being able to understand anyone. Everyone was super nice to me as well.