I’ve travelled a lot and I’ve learned to make contingency plans. That means not relying on planes and/or baggage arriving on time. This time, late October, I was lucky with the weather in Boston, Miami and Rio. Both planes arrived on time. Unfortunately, one of my bags got lost. How it happened is beyond my understanding, but it did, so I’m very glad I built in an extra day in Rio to give American Airlines time to deliver my clothes. Luckily they did so, because as Alison pointed out, the likelihood of a suitcase getting to any one of the ten pousadas we plan to visit at the time we happened to be there, was about nil!
One of the only upsides of the lousy US economy is that the Brazilian real has taken a dive compared to the dollar. Not knowing how easy it would be to use my debit card here, I bought about $600 of reais (pronounced hey-ai’s) and decided to change some more dollars when I got here. (Tip: use a debit, not a credit, card, to avoid cash advance fees.) The first bank ATM I went to in Rio rejected my US card. I didn’t take it personally, because it rejected Alison’s card, too. We went around the corner to a different bank, where everything went smoothly. I won’t tell you the names of the banks, because Alison tells me that the situation was reversed a few days ago, with the bank where we were successful rejecting her card! All the instructions are in Portuguese until you put your card into the machine and then retrieve it. The important thing to know is the card faces up, with the top of the card to the right.
Armed with a hundred reais, kept in my pocket for safety, we spent the evening with friends of Alison’s and ended up in a wonderful, local bar/restaurant in the Rio district of Gavea, a five minute cab ride from Alison’s district of Leblon. Alison claims that Rio cab drivers are a very honest bunch, and every trip except those from the aiport (where you pay in advance) is metered. You simply round up the price on the clock to the nearest real. No need to tip extra.
One of the only upsides of the lousy US economy is that the Brazilian real has taken a dive compared to the dollar. Not knowing how easy it would be to use my debit card here, I bought about $600 of reais (pronounced hey-ai’s) and decided to change some more dollars when I got here. (Tip: use a debit, not a credit, card, to avoid cash advance fees.) The first bank ATM I went to in Rio rejected my US card. I didn’t take it personally, because it rejected Alison’s card, too. We went around the corner to a different bank, where everything went smoothly. I won’t tell you the names of the banks, because Alison tells me that the situation was reversed a few days ago, with the bank where we were successful rejecting her card! All the instructions are in Portuguese until you put your card into the machine and then retrieve it. The important thing to know is the card faces up, with the top of the card to the right.
Armed with a hundred reais, kept in my pocket for safety, we spent the evening with friends of Alison’s and ended up in a wonderful, local bar/restaurant in the Rio district of Gavea, a five minute cab ride from Alison’s district of Leblon. Alison claims that Rio cab drivers are a very honest bunch, and every trip except those from the aiport (where you pay in advance) is metered. You simply round up the price on the clock to the nearest real. No need to tip extra.
