For the last month, I’ve been on the lookout for rooms to rent at a reasonable price. Finding that middle ground is tough, especially when most people rent out their rooms for prices that are crazy-high or suspiciously-low. Living in Niterói, across the bay from Rio, should have its perks, in that it’s just far enough away to offer lower rent. Not so, I find.

Scouring over the half dozen rental sites, plus a few social networking sites, I see prices set at R$1,000 per month or more. Ok, so sometimes it’s a little less but not by much. On the sites, most renters require me to be a female, though I seem to be missing a chromosome for that. The same sites almost always ask for people who study or work outside the residence, which creates a problem for me since Brazil doesn’t have the kind of work-from-a-cafe culture that the US has…and I work from my laptop.

On the social sites I check, ads are placed every few days (or at least once a week), yet no one lists the price they are asking. I can’t make heads or tails of this practice because the price point is, um, kind of important. In frustration, I started my own practice of asking “how much?” on every ad, to know for the sake of knowing but also to make a point. Perhaps it’s like jelly beans in a jar. I just need to make a guess and if I’m correct they’ll rent it to me for free or at least for that price. For the few that do respond, they inevitably throw the R$1,000 price at me.

No matter what the price, there’s always extra costs to be added on. Sometimes that cost is entirely expected (gas, electricity, water) and other times it’s a surprise to the unsuspecting foreigner (the “condomínio” tax). Roughly-speaking, the condo tax is to pay for the security guard and the building’s upkeep, while potentially increasing the cost of renting by a hundred or three hundred reais. For example, if renting an apartment is R$500 (good luck in a big city), the condo tax is almost R$300.

The best way to beat the system (ie, the high price points) is to live at least an hour or two outside the big city or to move to a less popular big city…basically, to move out of Rio or São Paulo and go elsewhere. In my search, I found many room rentals in two capital cities, Belo Horizonte and Salvador, for between R$200 and R$450 per month. From living 2 hours outside of Rio once, as well as in Belém, I can say that is on par with what I paid previously. So for everyone who thinks Brazil is automatically cheaper to live in, it really just depends. Sticking with the candy-themed analogy I made earlier, perhaps jelly beans have nothing to do with it. Renting here can be more like a box of chocolates.

I have since found a place in Rocinha, through a friend and for a good price.

Far from any coastline, in Brazil’s Central-West, lies a proverbial gold-mine of beauty. Just in case such an allusion slips the visitor’s mind, the name of the city says it all: Bonito.

Located in Mato Grosso do Sul, near the border with Paraguay, the city lies within the valley of a plateau and is the self-proclaimed “capital of eco-tourism”. The ground is made principally of limestone, meaning the water from the rivers of the region passes through a natural filtering process, making it crystal clear.

For nature-lovers, Bonito has a little bit of everything, including: snorkeling, diving, rappelling, tree-top rope courses, light rafting and horseback riding. There are also natural spas, waterfalls and caves to visit (check out a small picture gallery here). The discerning tourist might also want to keep an eye open for fig trees in the region as there’s a chance of striking it rich. A local legend says that Paraguayan soldiers in the late 1800’s, on their way to fight in Brazil, hid gold under fig trees. Some even say the ghosts of those who never made it home roam about in search of their lost treasure.

With all that Bonito offers, and in order to preserve the natural beauty, one of the local laws limits the daily number of tourists that can take guided tours of the activities offered. Any type of visitation of the region’s main attractions requires a local guide accredited by EMBRATUR, Brazil’s official tourism board, so it may be beneficial to shop around for the best prices. Between December and March, one will find the most tourists and therefore the highest prices for hotel rooms and tours. On the flip side, this period is also during the wet season and therefore everything is greener, animals are out and about and the rivers are full.

If ease and comfort are what the visitor needs, there are ways to experience a lot of what the region provides just by visiting Praia da Figueira (and Parque das Cachoeiras). Admission varies depending on the season and on the number of activities one does but, in general, it doesn’t get too expensive.

No matter how the days unfold in Bonito, there’s something for everyone (as long as that “everyone” likes nature, of course). I imagine it’s best to try a little of everything in light of the fact that a direct roundtrip ticket from Rio de Janeiro to Campo Grande (the location of the nearest airport, 3 hours out) is around US$300 for a mid-October flight.