Room available in Rio for the World Cup

Those are the magic words so many people are trying to hear. As the World Cup approaches the frenzy to tie down suitable housing arrangements all over Brazil has reached a fever pitch. Take a breath. Cool down. I've got some practical advice to help you find the room you require.

There are still great rooms available (like this one, for example). And dare I say it: there will likely still be rooms to find even after the Cup has begun. Let me lay it out.

First things first. If you are looking for that nice hotel in the popular Copacabana/Ipanema/Leblon tourist-friendly beach side zone in Rio, well then, you probably should have had your people call their people a long time ago. Reports that “all” of the hotel rooms in Rio are booked started coming out weeks ago. The easy stuff in the nice locations are gone. Period. Let it go. Just going to a hotel website and booking a room is no longer an option. You can take a little solace in knowing that the folks who got those rooms paid through the nose for them. Hotels have been shameless in their inflated pricing and minimum stay requirements. Chances are great you will ultimately wind up with a perfectly suitable place for a lot less money.

So now what? What’s a Cup fan to do? Let’s get real, practical and specific – and get off the well-worn hotel path. Luiz and I have traveled to many corners of the globe during all seasons of the year. We generally travel on a limited budget prioritizing our safety while also not being shy about staying somewhere completely unexpected. Here are several approaches that have worked for us that may well help you secure your booking.

This is cute, but it is not a good map. Get a good map.

Before we get into it- get a map. Get a good map, not a tourist map that makes Rio look like just three rich neighborhoods with beaches plus outlying areas. Open up your map and locate where you need to go while at your location, where you prefer to stay, and where you would consider staying. Then identify the bus, Metro and taxi routes that weave in and around those areas. If there is a subway system (Metro), and of course Rio has one but there may be readers looking beyond Rio, then expand your “would consider” areas to include those areas around Metro stops that are perhaps further out than you had first considered. The subway will whisk you about very quickly, so being further out is compensated for. The larger your area under consideration the larger your chances of thoughtful, realistic success.

And don’t stop at city boundaries. Places like Niterói, for example, may be a neighboring city to Rio but travel times to and from matches will actually be faster from some areas in Niterói than from some (seemingly more desirable) areas within Rio. Traffic and transportation routes can easily warp travel times. And traffic within the city proper can be nightmarish. In the case of Rio and Niterói there is a ferry service between them that often trims 20 – 30 minutes or more off taking a car, taxi or bus between the same points.

Private rentals

Utilize the websites that post private homes and rooms within homes for rent. Places like Airbnb, HomeAway, and misterbnb, to name a few, are part of a growing number of “vacation rentals” websites growing in popularity. These sites are great for connecting you directly with people who have opened up their home/apartment or a room therein in locations in and around where you want to be. (Normally I would suggest checking out the couchsurfing website for more options, but I have heard again and again in recent weeks that this option is pretty well sewn up.) The vast majority of hosts and guests that utilize these services report having a flawless experience and guests often report enjoying the accommodations better than the typical (and typically more expensive) hotel room.

This looks pretty typical for a living and kitchen space in a regular one or two bedroom apartment.

This is a little more on the higher end of things.

The prices listed by hosts at these sites during the month of the World Cup vary from the ridiculously expensive, often posted by those looking to cash in on the “screw-the-tourists” WC fever going on here, to the great value room that offers more than a hotel for less money, to the VERY cheap opportunity that is perfectly doable but may be in a location or situation you had not previously considered - and is available if you just choose to give it a go.

Be sure to expand your search criteria on these sites to include any neighboring cities you have under consideration.

The great thing about these self-hosting sites is that just as you have been procrastinating to finally nail down your housing, so have home hosts been procrastinating to finally post their unit or room for rent, so new good stuff, often in great locations, continues to appear. If you don’t find anything one day, continue to visit the site and watch for new listings. Once a first-time host books their apartment they will tell their friends and get them on board for listing theirs as well, so another great place may open up soon thereafter. Monitor these sites over time. Luiz and I have a room in our apartment that is available. Check out our listing here.

OK, so that was an obvious option. Here’s another route that produces fresh results that may be off the organized room-rental grid.

Social networking

Duh… Capitalize on the networks you have in place for work and your personal life. Utilize those online social networking sites. I am a member of several Facebook Groups in the Rio area that connect gringos, including groups related to cooking and dining, “garage sale”- stuff for sale, employment networking, bloggers, expats, etc. These groups are comprised of folks on the ground in Rio and beyond that can quickly expand your eyes and ears when searching for a place to rent. Just last week one group member mentioned that they had a couple friends from Europe looking for a place and within a few hours a half dozen group members posted that they had rooms or entire apartments for rent. Drill down into these sites. Search for relevant groups and politely post your needs. If they are closed groups see if the administrator will let you make a one-time post. Be friendly and fun – don’t be an ugly troll. Match the vibe of the group you are poking your head into. Many of these groups prohibit posting solicitations, so consider reaching out to members to make a personal connection and then make your request for local assistance in a private message.

Simple room on the higher end.

As usual, asking everyone you know to ask everyone they know will do wonders for your search.

Utilize forums on travel sites

Sites like Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor. Fodor’sTravel, VirtualTourist, etc. have forums (discussion boards) where travelers ask questions of each other and self-appointed helpful locals. The people who frequent these forums as helpers are usually very eager to offer advice to others. Locate the forums section and key into the city you are targeting (I've linked to Rio above). You can post your need for a room or an apartment to rent there. Also request any insider tips folks may have for those off-the-grid options in those cities.

Pretty typical efficiency kitchen.

Newer two or three bedroom apartments may have a kitchen like this.

I have seen multiple posts lately, at several of the forums I haunt, from World Cup visitors who have already booked space but their travel companions have bailed on them. So now they are looking to hook up with other travelers at the last minute to fill out the space and share the costs already incurred. So it is worth checking in at these sites periodically to see if fellow travelers are looking for you. If you post a request for help or reply to a comment already on the board you can have notice of subsequent comments sent to your email, so you can post requests at multiple sites and not have to circle back and check them all the time.

Consider staying in a favela community

Rio’s favelas (usually defined as poor, slum areas) get a pretty nasty rep in the international press. Heck, most of the time they get a wicked nasty rep in our local press. To the uninformed person looking from the outside in most favelas can look like pretty intimidating, nasty and dicey places. That may be, in fact,  an accurate description for many, many such areas. But there are exceptions. For good or for bad there have been municipally organized incursions into several of Rio’s favela communities by police forces to “pacify” these areas. The stated intention is to win back control of these communities for law-abiding residents and to deny that control to drug traffickers and their minions. This effort has been met with mixed reactions by residents and mixed results by police. Let’s just save that discussion for another time.

For our purposes here it is worth noting that there are indeed some areas in some favelas in Rio that offer very good and relatively safe accommodation opportunities during the Cup. Many poor neighborhoods are just neighborhoods with poor folks living there. Not much drama. And those folks often have perfectly comfortable housing which some are opening up to visitors to rent during their stay in Rio.

Check out Favela Experience’s World Cup Accommodations website for some unlikely yet terrific options. I will remind you that most of the rich folks in Rio live down by the water/beach. The poor folks live in the favelas that have been climbing up the steep hillsides for decades. That means the favela residents have all the killer views.

Book a room in a favela and prepare to have your preconceptions shattered.

Work it out on foot

Yep. That’s right. Just show up and figure it out. It can be done. It works. But it is not for everyone.

This is where I offer my pep talk about the power of personality: your self confidence that allows you to go this route; your gregariousness that enables you to speak to practically everyone you meet to ask for their help; and your gut feeling that keeps you calm and safe in situations that you may not have planned to be in. 

This fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to traveling is not new or all that rare. But it is not for everyone.

In our experience, between Luiz and I, we have found perfectly suitable and quite reasonably priced rooms upon arrival in P-Town, Massachusetts during the 4^th of July weekend, in Cabo Frio, Brazil during Carnaval and in Venice, Italy the day before Carnavale. ALL of those situations are simply written off as a fool’s errand by armchair travelers who insist on booking ahead.

The thing to keep in mind is that there are most certainly more rooms available than most people know how to access. I once found a room in the Latin Quarter in Paris upon arrival and paid less than half of what I would have paid for most anything available online in advance. I had to walk down a few side streets and inquire at a number of unlikely places, but it panned out in less than a few hours.

Many, many local hotels do not have a website or are not even on consolidated business association websites. So searching for space via the internet shows only a portion of what’s out there. You need to walk up and down every street in your (prioritized) “preferred” or “would consider” neighborhoods and stop at every hotel and inquire. If they are full, ask where they might suggest you look. Just because a hotel is relatively invisible beyond its front door does not necessarily mean it is not worth staying at. Certainly preview the rooms, but keep an open mind. You may be very pleasantly surprised. The available room may have a balcony overlooking a magical hidden garden area. Many family owned hotels are just not working the business networking thing. There are scores of these types of hotels in Rio.

The trick behind making this pressured search work is: a) trust you will find a room, b) travel light so you can search without lugging around multiple pieces of luggage, c) give yourself some time to search before it gets dark. Don’t arrive at 5 p.m. and expect success before the sun goes down. d) speak to EVERYONE you come in contact with and ask for help, e) if you find a place that is fully occupied, question everyone there about their ideas for where else to look (once a clerk at a small hotel in Cusco, Peru agreed to call her brother at another hotel which lead us to a tip that paid off), f) include in your requests for help a friendly suggestion that you would pay to be a home guest at their place or the place of someone they might suggest (again, this has worked out well for us in the past), g) don’t give up easily. Enjoy the hunt. Rather than get all stressed, know that it is going to take time and effort and just pace yourself. Take in the neighborhood feel and notice the architecture around you. Stop for lunch or a coffee, etc. It’s only a fool’s errand if you give up too easily and act the fool while looking.

One of our best week long stays came about by meeting someone at an ice cream parlor who, after chatting for a bit, offered to move her and her baby out of her home and into her mother’s place to then rent us her house. She needed the money and we needed a place to stay. Win, win. Plus we had all the conveniences of home. Then there was the time in relatively rural Turkey where our inquiring around for a great place for dinner resulted in a guy giving us a ride (to and from) his brother’s restaurant a few miles away. The food was excellent. People who need the money will help you find a solution. Wear a smile and talk to everyone. And have fun with it.

If all else fails consider spending the night in one of Rio’s hundreds of “love hotels,” generally labeled motels. These establishments are in most areas and can vary from pretty fancy setups where all the magic happens to seriously funky flop houses where you should probably use your own sheets. But seriously, many of these motels can be a reasonable place to spend a night to get a fresh start on your neighborhood search in the morning.

Perhaps I digress. Admittedly most folks going to the World Cup did not pay all that money for air travel and game tickets to find themselves sleeping in a temporarily-converted children's room and doubled up with three generations of residents in a private home or in a room adjacent to a sex worker’s home base. I guess my point is to think outside the box and know that a solution is out there for those willing to put in the shoe leather to find it.

So to wrap up… 

The bad news (which you already know) is that if you have read this far you probably have plans to be in Brazil for the World Cup but you have yet to secure all the housing you need during your stay. The good news is that you still have a lot of time to sort things out. But don’t delay any further. Get to work putting some of these tips into action. People with extra cash in their possession can usually pay someone to solve their problem for them (and in the case of the World Cup they will get very expensive accommodation, for sure). The rest of us have to produce some personal magic, otherwise known as hard work.

Don’t panic. You still have time. Now get to it. Being in Brazil for the World Cup is going to be amazing and worth all your efforts. Good luck!

Carnaval Blocos de Rua in Rio

At last count there are 523 blocos (neighborhood street parties) scheduled in Rio from now through Carnaval 2014. I've got news for you. If you come to Rio for Carnaval and don’t have a good time… you are probably in a coma. For a growing list of Rio’s blocos, go here.

All too often the mistake is made that Carnaval in Rio is all, and exclusively, about the main event: the over-the-top fantastic Carnaval Parade in the Sambadrome that takes place all night and into the dawn on Sunday and Monday nights. That is truly a once in a lifetime party that should be on your bucket list. But the spirit of the loooong holiday weekend is definitely embedded in Rio’s residents, its neighborhoods and the very organic eruptions of neighborhood pride packed into its Blocos.

Blocos are the free, no tickets required, popular street parties that are the main popular expression of Carnaval throughout Rio. Blocos typically include live music, parading, party/costume themes and sometimes a performance stage. The bigger events may include a trio elétrico. All blocos are a riot of music, beer, celebration, beer, community pride, beer, and just plain fun, fun, fun.

Make no mistake, Blocos are not unique to Rio. They are popular in cities all over Brazil. Wikipedia cites the Brazilian state of Pernambuco as the center of Brazil’s Bloco universe, noting that the biggest bloco “Galo da Madrugada” attracts more than 2 million people in downtown Recife.

Some folks have their favorite bloco. Some blocos have a long, storied history. Some blocos have morphed in character over time, growing into huge events. Some have outgrown their earlier appeal. More and more are starting to include chemical toilets (thank you city government rules enforcement). All of them will have countless street vendors selling beer, other beverages and lots of food. These parties are walk up events open to all.

Going to a bloco is a very low maintenance thing. Just put on some very comfortable clothes. Be prepared for rain. Take just your house key, ID and some money. Leave all your unnecessary documents at home. Blocos are by far and away safe events, but you know how “opportunity creates the thief.” Pickpockets love crowds. Take your patience with crowds and your spirit of adventure.

Go. Catch the vibe. Dance. Smile. Feel the love.

Bom Carnaval.

Pop up dining in Rio?

Could it be true? Has its time come? Are gourmet food trucks and an underground restaurant scene soon to blossom in Rio? One can hope.

Thanks to the ever-sagacious Eat Rio blog and various Face Book groups for gringos in Rio and beyond I have stumbled upon two exciting eating out options off the beaten path. A candle burns in the dining desert for wanna-be foodies on a budget.

Restaurant dining in Rio and Niterói (and other places, I presume) can be both boring and expensive. Admittedly I am at a disadvantage having spent so many years in the San Francisco Bay Area food scene. Not much gets me excited in my current local reality, and way too much is priced out of my reality.

I do very much enjoy many of the star Brazilian dishes so popular here and in other regions of the country. When we go out to eat we seek out those places that do these dishes very well.

On the international cuisine front, however, choices are quite limited. Restaurants serving what they present to be Asian, Italian, or “Tex-Mex” fare have clearly tweaked the flavor profiles to match the local (mildly spicy, please) palate. Unfortunately for me – who loves a fiery Thai chili paste or an unforgiving slow burn from a roasted Mexican salsa – spicy international or fusion food is hard to come by.

And pizza. I know São Paulo has a famously delicious, stylish and scrumptious pizzeria scene, but this reality does not extend to Rio, much less Niterói (with few exceptions). The popular and ubiquitous all-you-can-eat pizza restaurants serve a kind of pizza that does not inspire me to go out for pizza much. Alas.

But there is hope on the scene.

Luis and Daniel, our hosts, with hard-working server Jennifer

We recently gathered a group of friends and went to a once-a-week-only pop-up restaurant serving authentic Mexican food: Fiesta Mexicana. Two young Mexican-American entrepreneurs recently relocated from California have struck a deal with a Youth Hostel in Rio’s Cantagalo community to use their rooftop seating area (with a tiny, tiny food prep space) to share their love of Mexican foods. They serve real, homemade, traditional, heart-warming Mexican food. Lucky us.

In addition to the world class view of the sea beyond Ipanema, the smell of carne asada tacos and fresh corn tortillas was completely hypnotic. We instantly forgave the somewhat cramped and disorganized goings on when it was made clear that our friends could try their first margarita over a shared plate of cheesy nachos. And the super spicy salsa verde – OMG – I had died and gone to Mexican heaven.

Most of our friends were tasting their first plates of authentic Mexican food. Beef and pork tacos were the dishes of the night. One of our host’s mother was in town and working up a serious sweat in the summer heat pumping out fresh corn tortillas. The smell of dinner to come was enough to get our eyes burning with the promise of roasted jalapeño peppers.

Just one night a week. You have to search this place out. You have to want it. The borrowed location is tucked in the hillside favela overlooking Ipanema. Getting from the public elevator at the General Osório Metro Station to your dining destination is no easy trick, winding your way through the labyrinth of narrow stairways that characterizes the community. But it is worth the effort.

We’re hoping their obvious deserved success and word of mouth driven growth in popularity will result in a move to more spacious digs and a few more evenings of dining service each week. Fingers crossed. But until then, we will definitely go back for more. Fiesta Mexicana is now our favorite (and only) pop-up restaurant.

Then there is the question of food trucks.

Food venders on the street, both casual and very casual, are ever-present practically everywhere in Brazil. Whether you are at the beach, outside a music venue, at the central square in a small village or just wandering a neighborhood after hours there are invariably folks frying up hamburgers, cooking a skewer of meat over a grill or heaping hot dogs with every imaginable diced up accompaniment.  But for the sake of this post I would suggest the term “food truck” is not the accurate descriptor for these vendors.

In my yearnings for food trucks I am imagining a growing scene of passionate cooks putting out creative, flavorful, quality foods at affordable prices. That reality, I’m afraid, has yet to hit the streets in my area, with one notable exception.

All ferro e farinha images taken from their FB page.

Ferro e Farinha (Iron and Flour) is a break-out pizza truck (pizza oven on a trailer, actually) putting out high end, real Italian pizzas – at affordable prices. I am inspired. To catch up with where they will be on any given night you have to communicate with them on Face Book. From what I can tell, if they will be parked at a public event they will post the location. If they plan a more clandestine pop-up evening of pizza you have to msg them for a location.

Full disclosure: I have yet to enjoy a pizza from Ferro e Farinha. But I am chomping at the bit to do so. The excitement surrounding this new street food option has risen to a full roar. I have had the pleasure of meeting Sei, the NYC Italian pizzeria trained head chef in charge at FeF, and have witnessed his passion for his craft. (Actually, quite by coincidence, I met Sei at Fiesta Mexicana. Small scene indeed.) Everything I have seen and heard about this custom-built pizza oven on wheels operation and the pies it puts out has me (as you can see) promoting their success.

Rio diners deserve quality food at affordable prices. The Rio arts and music scene is WAY TOO happening for there NOT to be a flourishing fleet of hip food trucks. Dining out should not remain a class privilege in Rio. It is time to democratize great food. (Can you see me thrusting my fist over my head?) You can follow an effort to legalize Food Trucks in Rio at the Face Book page Food Truck Rio.

The SP food truck folks behind the effort to legalize trucks in Rio.

If you have a bead on other great food options in Rio like these I have described, please let us know about them in the comments. I am on a mission to ferret out and support these efforts.

2014 Rio Carnaval tickets

Sunday and Monday tickets. Tab at the bottom gets you in. Tab in the middle gets you into your Sector. The big badge you wear all night to get in and out of your sector.

Every year Luiz and I sit alert at our phones (and computer) to blast into the mad rush phone feeding frenzy that is the sale of Carnaval tickets in Rio. The tickets are made available at 9:00 a.m. on a set date via a series of telephone numbers. Depending on which Sector you are seeking tickets for, you dial that number and hope to get patched through to the business-like computer voice prompter to buy tickets. This year we got lucky and have some extras. More about that at the bottom of the post.

Prior to the sale date we coordinate with our friends to see where everyone wishes to sit and we all gear up to buy as many tickets as we can in that Sector. If one of us does not get through the hope is that someone else will and we can then buy them from each other. Ultimately we are working as a group to ensure our group can all see at least one night of the Carnaval Parade.

The big parade/competition takes place over two days: Sunday and Monday of Carnaval weekend. The neighborhood Schools of Samba are randomly assigned to parade at a particular time on either day. Which night is the best night to go is often a topic of great debate. Everyone has their favorite School(s) so if favorites among friends are split between two nights we have a debate on our hands regarding which night we should be trying to get tickets for. Some years the choice is obvious and clear. Other years some folks will follow the group on one night, but then spend the extra bank to see their personal favorite School on the other night.

Which Sector to sit in is a discussion that has been settled for many years. Among our group of friends the decision is largely a financial one. Carnaval tickets are expensive, even when buying them directly from LIESA, the Central League of Independent Schools of Samba, the official ticket vendor. The so-called “best” Sectors are generally seen to be Sectors 6, 7, 8 and 9. They are good because they are located far enough back from the beginning of the parade route that you can get a visual overview of nearly the entire School. The numerous sections of the parading School tell a visual narrative that corresponds to the music. Seen all together you get the best impact. Prices in these Sectors are way too steep for our crowd, especially for just one night out.

Sectors 4, 5, 10, and 11 are also good choices, if you have the cash. While not the ideal locations they still provide that long(ish) view you are looking for.

Us regular folks who go almost every year (some of whom have gone dozens of times over the years) look for a good value combining price and location. Since this is neither the first nor the last time in the Sambadromo we know the drill and are quite happy with Sectors 2 or 3. They are near to the front so the energy of the School is very high and the precision of their choreography is still on point and not frayed with fatigue. Sectors 12 and 13 can offer cheaper seats, but the Schools at that point (the end of the route) are often disorganized and sometimes running frantically toward the finish line to stay within the rigid time frame allowed and not receive a penalty for going over.

The night of the event we arrive early and claim a large area for our group at the down-route side of the Sector. You quickly learn that you have to stake a big claim on space at the onset because slowly but surely that shrinks in the face of a growing crowd of spectators worming their way into fractions of space throughout the seating area. It is inevitable. But we have some practiced skills at maintaining our spot throughout the night.

It’s always a great night. As a group we bring with us plenty of food and drink to last the long 9 hours or so of the show. Everyone knows all the songs and have years of stories to correspond to every School. The friendly competition insisting which School has been best over the years, insider scandalous gossip regarding the current Carnavelescos (the creative director, like the futebol coach), and assertions of confidence as to who will surely be named Champion this year make the many hours pass quickly. And the show itself NEVER disappoints!

Sound good? Well, like I said. We have some extra tickets available for both Saturday and Sunday nights. Send me an email if you want more information.

Bom Carnaval!

Red Bull cliff diving comes to Niterói

Who says the best thing about Niterói is the view of Rio? (OK, maybe everybody… well, at least every Carioca.) We Niteroiense (folks from Niterói) know better. Can I get a shout out from my brothers in Oakland, CA?

It would seem the folks at the Red Bull cliff diving championship know it too. Niterói is one of the sites hosting the Red Bull 2013 Cliff Diving World Series. They will be here September 27^th and 28^th on Icaraí beach – just three blocks from our apartment.

According to the official website, they are very excited. “For the first time in the history of the World Series, the world's best cliff divers touch down on the South American mainland. The place chosen to host the high diving elite is the beach of Icaraí  in Niterói,  a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro, with which it shares the Guanabara Bay. The name of the beach means "holy river" in the native language (my note: indigenous people, not the Portuguese) and used to be a place where people jumped from a platform during the 1950s.”

Actually, the diving platform on Icaraí beach, which was built in 1936, remained there until demolished in 1965. Luiz tells many a tale about skipping grade school with his little buddies and going to the beach to jump from the lower platform while his parents were unaware of his shenanigans.

The cliff diving folks at Red Bull will be constructing a temporary diving platform that reaches 27 meters above the water, significantly higher than the historic beach attraction. 

Sounds great – but did their advance team check on the water quality of Guanabara Bay and the healthfulness of swimming at Praia de Icaraí? I don’t mean to be a wet blanket here, but the official recommendation from the city, posted daily, regarding the water safety for bathers is typically “not recommended.”

Don’t get me wrong. Luiz and I swim at numerous beaches in Niterói, but they are the ocean beaches. We have yet to venture any further than ankle deep into the bay beaches, including Praia de Icaraí. But hey, they are the professionals.

The event is going to be super cool for us, but, dare I say it? It would seem the best thing about the location choice would be the view of the Christ the Redeemer statute and Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio across the bay. Ouch.

Come join the party. While you are here you can visit the landmark MAC Museum (contemporary art) just a few hundred meters up the beach (and a part of that spectacular view).

Gay and lesbian marriage gets easier in Rio

At first glance: whoopee! Rio state is getting its legal house in order and finally complying with National protocols regarding lesbian and gay marriage licenses.

But then, it is never that simple. Let me try to explain. [Note: I am not a lawyer and do not have a complete understanding of all the legal nuances here. But I have read through a bunch of stuff since the recent ruling and offer these comments to help shed some light on the subject. Please add your comments if I have gotten something really wrong.]

Civil marriage for lesbian and gay couples, which has technically been legal in the State of Rio de Janeiro since the May, 2011 unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of Brazil allowing gay couples to enter into legal Civil Unions (which were then later converted to marriages), is now easier to obtain and no longer requires a legal petition to a judge. Or so it seems.

While local LGBT rights groups are generally pleased with the April 19, 2013 ruling by Judge Valmir Silva de Oliveira, Rio state’s General Magistrate of Justice, determining that gay and lesbian couples can apply for a marriage license directly through regular channels (thus skipping the previous Civil Union step), there is some question as to whether easier access to marriage will play itself out equally across the state given the staunchly anti-gay marriage rulings to date by Judge Luiz Henrique Oliveira Marques, of the First Court of Public Registry in Rio city. (Sorry for the long sentence, I am starting to write like a Brazilian.)

In practice, when a marriage license is applied for at the notary public office you complete some paperwork, present some documents, pay a fee and then there is a minimum 15 day waiting period during which an announcement of the request is published in the Civil Registry ostensibly so others may contest the marriage on legal grounds and to give the local prosecutor time to weigh in, should they have a beef. Then the application is forwarded to the local judge in the Court of Public Registry for final approval. Then voilà! You have a marriage.

So the recent statewide ruling that streamlines the process for gay and lesbian couples is a good thing. The process is the same as it is for straight couples. No more extra steps getting a Civil Union license and then petitioning the court to have it converted into a Marriage license. Sounds good.

But the reality to date for local gay and lesbian couples has been that when they have petitioned the court to have their Civil Unions converted to Marriages (consistent with the opinion expressed by the Supreme Court) nearly every petition has been denied by the particular judge that presides in the Court of Public Registry in Rio city. Now guess who is the judge who grants final approval of marriage applications in Rio? Yep, same guy.

So people are worried that he will continue his longstanding behavior of denying gay and lesbian marriages by not giving final consent in the new streamlined process. True, the question before the court is not exactly the same. But the judge has ticked off a lot of queer couples (more than 100) in Rio to date and they are not looking forward to a repeat appearance of their petition before this guy. Nobody wants to hire a lawyer and fight in court just to get married.

Perhaps the judge will get with the program. Perhaps the slight change in the process tips the legal scales such that the judge no longer has the prerogative to deny petitions. Perhaps we should not be worried by this whole “what’s past is prologue” thing.

Time will tell.

Why bother, some may ask. Just get the Civil Union. Throw a party and invite your family and friends to buy you a new toaster, thirstier bathroom towels or maybe a night out at a nice restaurant. Forget the whole “marriage” thing. Well, as you might imagine, being in a legal “marriage” comes with critical legal rights. The differences between the two types of marriage go well beyond the status. For example, in a marriage the spouse may use the surname of their partner, may be enrolled as a dependent on Social Security, a health plan or for income tax purposes. Furthermore, spouses can add the income of the household when applying for some types of financing, the spouse is entitled to alimony in a separation, they automatically receive inheritance in the event of death and they have the right to adopt a child. Outside of marriage, all these issues need to go through the legal system.

But hey, we won the case, right? Who wants to be a Debbie Downer? In the short term – whoopee! Luiz and I are getting married! The date is set in June. Luiz’s friends have already been checking in about the party. Process be damned – here we go (again). Plus, we live in Niterói, just out of reach of the wicked witch of the west (we hope).