I’ve been in Brazil more than a week, which makes me an expert on the giant place, right? Here are some interesting things I’ve learned about Brazil. Also included are ideas on preparing to go to Brazil.
- Pomeranians are the most popular dog based on my count in the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo. Fox Dog would fit right in.
- Some cars here run on natural gas. I don’t know if these cars were made this way or if they were retrofitted. I’ve been in Ubers that needed gas and stopped to fill the tank. Drivers made us step out in case the car exploded while they were filling the tank.
- Three minutes a day on Duolingo isn’t enough to learn Portuguese to get around. Not many people speak English. It is surprising how well we can navigate the world using sign language and gestures and the Apple translation app. I should have done 15 to 20.
- “We don’t wear nice things,” said a young woman to us on the train the Taylor Swift concert. A handful people before earlier told us to not look on our phones while we walk down the streets, which is big city common sense. If you are looking at your phone, you aren’t paying attention to your surroundings and that makes you a target. Got it. The woman on the train continued: “That is a nice watch. Don’t wear that watch unless you want to be targeted.”
- Uber has motorcycles where you can hire a ride on the back seat of a bike.
- Traffic in Rio is heavy and chaotic. The white line that divides car lanes is the motorcycle lane. The heavy traffic means the motorcycles look for shortcuts and the motorcycles looking for shortcuts make it chaotic.
- I don’t know how tourists/visitors got around before Uber.
- Sidewalks in Rio are mosaics, which is neat.
- Want to look like a local? Wear a baseball hat for the New York Yankees. Or L.A. Dodgers. But mostly the Yankees.
- People on Ilhe Grande are unphased by 15 hour power outages.
- Samba dancing is fancy grinding, as I witnessed people dancing on the beach. I take that back. Samba is a form of dance created by emancipated slaves, much like jazz and the blues in the U.S.
- People show a lot of flesh, but it really isn’t sexualized. I wore a dress with a plunging neckline to the second night of Taylor Swift concerts. If people looked at me funny (which they weren’t), they have wondered why I was wearing a bra as it was sticking out. (It was part of my outfit!) They would have said skip the bra instead. Maybe Americans are prudes?
- Don’t flush toilet paper here. There is a little can next to the potty for used TP.
- There also is a little shower head next to toilets in hotels to clean yourself so you don’t need to use as much TP.
- If you aren’t going to bring enough socks and underwear for a seventeen day trip, bring some laundry soap. Shampoo and hand soap doesn’t cut it.
- Want to stay really, really, really hydrated? Bring Nuun or some other electrolyte tablets/powder to drop into a bottle of water. Also helps with hangovers.
- People shower here a lot. Maybe because every time you step outside, you sweat.
- Chocolate cake for breakfast at hotel buffets! Woohoo! Red velvet is also wicked popular around here. Maybe it is a Christmas thing?
No comments:
Post a Comment