General Info

[QUOTE=Torgoch]Just a quick question for those of you who live in Brazil or who have travelled there many times. Are Mastercard credit cards widely accepted in Brazil? My bank uses VISA but is switching to Mastercard, I've used VISA in Brazil without any problems. Since I have never looked for the MC logo when travelling, I can't remember if it is as widely accepted in South America. I am assuming the answer is yes .. but I would be grateful for any comments. Obrigado![/QUOTE]

I have used my Mastercard for many years in Brazil and I have never had a problem with any establishment accepting Mastercard.

I, however, do advise you to call your bank before going to Brazil and letting them know you are travelling to Brazil so that your bank will not decline any charges from Brazil.

[QUOTE=Christopherd]Looking at comments on high end places, I think you're right! I generally have a 'past caring' attitude on the occasions I go to 4x4 - even if I don't tip or pay the front desk 'mistakes.' I've felt this year sometimes that the low end (my usual stomping ground) is struggling to get prices up in line with everywhere else, but 10R shots are still obtainable in Centro; and only a few VM bars have tried to push their prices. ...[/QUOTE]

BA 85 first floor, is charging R$ 35.00 for 30 minutes and other low end centro places have added on an average of 5 Reais per session of 30 min. or more. Beer seems to be holding its price and the number of beer drinkers has gone up versus those interested in a programa. Had a hard time to make it to the cabine on a recent saturday.

When business is slow, the garotas seem to get bored and it takes a greater effort to get them going. Some places that were great a few months ago, are now almost dead and others have gotten that great party atmosphere, such as Termas 116 after 7-8 PM. I just hope that their ricketty floor doesn´t colapse, with so many people in there.

In line with the high end termas higher prices, MV 30, with its 20 Reais entrance fee and lower session prices, seems to be getting some of the higher end termas business, as both times I have been there recently, they have really been full, most of the garotas are working and it was a great party atmosphere.

Cancun entrance is now $50, was $30. Was in there the other day, I am sure it is not always like this but geez the quality was bad. Nothing, zero, absoolutely nothing worth doing. Even had the infamous twins from 4x4 who are just fugly now, cellulite all over their everwidening asses, a friggin carwreck!

Has anybody been into T65 of late? I noticed "Dons Cafe" has opend next door. Apparently they are 2 seperate places but once inside you can move amongst the 2? Anybody has the run down on this place? I will be going next week, but thought I would get the heads up first!

[QUOTE=Bubba Boy]Cancun entrance is now $50, was $30. Was in there the other day, I am sure it is not always like this but geez the quality was bad. Nothing, zero, absoolutely nothing worth doing. Even had the infamous twins from 4x4 who are just fugly now, cellulite all over their everwidening asses, a friggin carwreck!

Has anybody been into T65 of late? I noticed "Dons Cafe" has opend next door. Apparently they are 2 seperate places but once inside you can move amongst the 2? Anybody has the run down on this place? I will be going next week, but thought I would get the heads up first![/QUOTE]
Paid R$20 to enter the Cancun Whiskeria (Manhattan) just a short time ago. Since everything is the same in terms of access to talent and rooms, no need to go the robe route unless you don't want to get telltale signs of contact with the opposite sex on your street clothes. You may want to include this tip when you update your guide.

As for talent, I saw plenty that made the trip worthwhile and I am not a fan of big butts.

The always amusing 36 hours in.... takes on Rio.

Some interesting suggestions. Tomorrow I'm going to check out the elevator tower...

- SNIP -
7) A DIFFERENT VIEW

Forget those postcard-perfect views from Sugar Loaf and the Corcovado. This summer, as part of an effort to better integrate the favelas with the city, Rio unveiled a gleaming elevator tower that rises more than 20 stories to connect upscale Ipanema with the favela of Cantagalo above. At the corner of Rua Teixeira de Melo and Rua Barão da Torre, just off Praça General Osório, this progressive piece of architecture has an observation deck with views across Ipanema and Copacabana. Guards may stop you from taking a second set of elevators to the favela proper. But at least you’ve gotten as close as you’re likely to get on your own.

- UNSNIP -

[url]http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/travel/19hours.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Mr North]The always amusing 36 hours in.... takes on Rio.

Some interesting suggestions. Tomorrow I'm going to check out the elevator tower...

[url]http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/travel/19hours.html[/url][/QUOTE]

That's nice for civilians but, as an ISG member, you'd probably be more interested in Christopherd's tour. Saara market is always entertaining, whether it's getting eye candy or watching people swat at someone who's just stolen something and running away. The object is not to take chase and capture the thief, just to knock what he has stolen from his hands so it can be taken back to the vendor. Last time I saw it, it was a tray of sunglasses and a couple of policemen on the corner bumped him to knock it loose. Off he went, and the police went back to their conversation.

[post]977597[/post]

Braz Gvt recently made a lot of noise in the media about authorizing the sovereign wealth fund to buy dollars ... in an attempt to at least tell the market they were trying to halt the rise of the real. In reality, who knows? Stories said it was appreciating so much that exporters were complaining ..... that said, does nothing to stem in-country inflation I'm sure.

I will be in Brazil on a long cruise next year. Because of the high international call prices on the ship, I'd like to get a Brazilian cell for calling the U.S. That's the only reason.
What are my options? Do they have cheap, reloadable phones?

[QUOTE=Vittu]I will be in Brazil on a long cruise next year. Because of the high international call prices on the ship, I'd like to get a Brazilian cell for calling the USA That's the only reason.

What are my options? Do they have cheap, reloadable phones?[/QUOTE]Vittu, If you have a GSM phone you can use it in Brazil. If not, you can buy one cheap on Ebay for $30-$50. Just take the phone and your passport to any cell phone store and they will give you a sim card for about $40R. You then buy minutes on it like a prepaid phone. You can buy minutes at most newspaper kiosks.

[QUOTE=Vittu]I will be in Brazil on a long cruise next year. Because of the high international call prices on the ship, I'd like to get a Brazilian cell for calling the U.S. That's the only reason.
What are my options? Do they have cheap, reloadable phones?[/QUOTE]
No............

[QUOTE=Vittu]I will be in Brazil on a long cruise next year. Because of the high international call prices on the ship, I'd like to get a Brazilian cell for calling the U.S. That's the only reason.
What are my options? Do they have cheap, reloadable phones?[/QUOTE]

I recommend an internet place and Skype away.
Of course you can call the US from a Brazil cel but it's not cheap.

Texting brasil

I see certain phone companies in the USA allow unlimited texting international. Of course the person I will send the text might not have that service in brasil. Any phone plans I can get here in the USA with a brasil number?

[quote=auriflama]texting brasil

i see certain phone companies in the usa allow unlimited texting international. of course the person i will send the text might not have that service in brasil. any phone plans i can get here in the usa with a brasil number?[/quote]
not realy necessary to have a brazilian phone number in the us to text to brazil. most plans in brazil, even the pre pago or pre paid ones, accept incoming text messages and unlike n. america, the receiver usually does not pay a fee to receive a text message, only the sender.

with that being said, there could be a diference in the way the text message is processed by a us based carier using cdma or sprint pcs, making it incompatible with the receiving system in brazil, usually gms and you would probably, want to avoid using the accentuation used in brazil, as the us carier might interpret this as giberish or a command.

some service providers here in brazil, have a free website based internet to cell phone texting service, although they might require you to have an activated chip and a number with a credit balance from their company in your name, before you can send a text message online and some may charge a fee of about r$ 0,40 plus taxes for each text message you send. these services go under various names,such as oi tor**** web, claro tor****, vivo tor**** web and tim tor****. tor**** is how a text message is called here. msn used to have a paid online to sms texting service as well.

you can also text any cell phone for free, using applications such as jaxtr, gizmo sms, coolsms and there are several other java based applications that do this as well.

[QUOTE=Auriflama]Texting brasil

I see certain phone companies in the USA allow unlimited texting international. Of course the person I will send the text might not have that service in brasil. Any phone plans I can get here in the USA with a brasil number?[/QUOTE]

I've used the following service for having girls call me from Brasil. For them it's the equivalent of calling a land line versus a cell line. It's only for incoming calls though. It worked for me, so check it out.


[url]http://www.virtufon.com/cgi/vf.php[/url]


ryjer

My TIM prepaid chip sends text to and from the US no problem. Callingn the US from any Brazilian phone is expensive, kind of like it was in other countries like 20 years ago. Skype etc is the way to go. The Skype app on smart phones works great, just need an internet connection and then you have cheap calls to the US.