Leaving behind all of last year’s controversy, when the Brazilian Tourism Office required that the book was taken out of the country’s market for, as they argued, estimulating sexual tourism and exposing the Brazilian public to a “vexatious situation”, the guide “Rio for Partiers” is back on the shelfs this month. However, the reader won’t find on the book the three pages that caused the governmental rage, where the author Cristiano Nogueira classified the girls from Rio de Janeiro in categories and described them – according to the translator in the Tourism Office, who probably doesn’t know a word of English, as I would find out latter – as Sex Machines. You can check out here that the description in the book is humorous, not offensive.

(para português, clique na bandeira de Portugal abaixo do título)

Cristiano explained me that, even though the Justice had given him the green light, canceling the injunction that got the book out of the shelfs, he thought it was better to just get rid of the controversial pages.

– I thought it was best just to take out the chapter about dating in Rio, since I was so misunderstood before. My primary intention was to show, using a humurous language, that foreigners could have a serious relationship with the Brazilian girls. But we realized that, after this parcial victory against censorship, there is a better understanding of the guide’s goal, wich is to publicize, in an irreverent way, the good things of Rio to other countries tourists. Just keep in mind that the book is still partially censored because of two female judges who, seems to me, have not even read the guide, and are willing to fight against the antifeminist cause, for wich the book was erroneously accused by the Brazilian Tourism Office.

When I think of my post ‘Rio de Janeiro – o guia completo‘ (The complete guide of Rio de Janeiro – wich probably, by the time you read this will already be translated to English), I can really put my self in Cristiano’s shoes. After I wrote the guide, I saw that I could easily be misunderstood in some of my politically incorrect descriptions of the different types of ‘tribes’ in Rio and ended up deleting some paragraphs. I still have them on my computer and really think they were the best part of the whole text, but I decided to leave them out. The world is so boring nowadays, with everybody lacking sense of humor, feeling so offended by anything and ready to blow the wistle for little things that I decided to spare myself of the headache.

Cristiano is a desinger – therefore a book that excels in the graphics – worked with digital marketing and, one day, dropped everything to dedicate his life to the guide. The ideia came in 2001 when, after having lived for 10 years in Austria and seven in Chicago, came back to Rio de Janeiro with a different view of the city.

– I started to understand what the ‘gringos’ saw, a different perspective. I am not an anthropologist or sociologist, I just wanted to show the best rio has to offer to the tourists. I gathered a team and, after seven months of work, we had organized all the informations on the guide.

With around 200 pages e available in English and Spanish (with the name ‘Rio sin parar‘), the guide costs US$30 and has 1/3 of its sales made in the United States. The rest is bought by tourists in Brazil. There’s also a PDF version that can be downloaded for US$20 on rioforpartiers.com, where you can also find a version about Salvador, the capital of Bahia. ‘Rio for partiers has already received two international awards: ‘Best new travel guide’ and ‘Grand prize best travel publication’.

For those who think that Cristiano is rich and living out of the book’s earnings, the author explains that people who writes books are usually not thinking about the money (unless you are J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown, of course).

If someone says that they are going to write a book, is doing that because of ego, because you can’t get rich out of it. If I have profit, is because the company evolved and started making partnerships with advertisers, marketing. Just a small amount of the money comes from the selling of the guides. (Maybe that’s why he promptly sent me a book when I asked).

In the 20 minute chat I had with Cristiano over the phone, I identified myself a lot with him when he talked about the changes in his life after he started editing ‘Rio for Partiers’. After I the creation of Sem Destino, everytime I go out, I keep looking at things and thinking of what can become my next post on the blog. With him, it is no different.

– After I started working with this, I can’t go to a club and have fun. I am always paying attention to the clothes people are wearing, the drinks they are ordering, what time they arrive. I analyze the prices, wich credit cards are accepted. Those who work with tourism, never have a vacation. But I can assure you that it is not the worst life you can have.