Things That Are Good to Know

Hotel vs. Motel
A few things of note before traveling to Brazil. First is the difference between a Hotel and Motel. A hotel is where you will want to stay, for a night or week or what have you. As opposed to a Motel, which in Brazil is universally known as a rent-by-the hour type of establishment, if you get my drift. They are usually housed in modest buildings set off the street, very discreet. You would probably miss them entirely, if not looking for one. We have one on the main drag by our house. Its aptly named the OK Motel, so you don’t have to worry about feeling guilty because there its “OK to have an affair”. I’ve only seen one truck speed out of the driveway and I’ve never seen anyone leave it. Except, today I saw a guy with his shorts hanging off his hips, as is all the fashion here among the youth, run from the driveway and cross the street to where I was walking. As he strode by he looked at me, winked and smiled, like I knew why he was there. It was a perverse encounter.

Thumbs Up vs. Okay Sign

Using the thumbs up hand gesture is the way to go in Brazil. People use it here as we use the wave in the States. I usually use it as a response to people staring at me; I smile and say "Oi", with a vigorous thumbs up. One thing that you should never do is to lift your hand in the OK gesture, with your thumb and index finger making a circle. This is equivalent to giving someone the bird in Brazil. I’ve only done this once to my friend Cosmo at dinner…oops! Thankfully, he’s got a good sense of humor.

Don’t Flush the Paper Down

My whole life I’ve been taught to flush the toilet paper down. But oh no, not here in Brazil. No one flushes TP down, they throw it away in the little waste basket. Which doesn’t make for pleasant experience when using a public restroom. They do equip toilets with a nice sprayer so you can get that “oh so fresh feeling” every time you go. But drying off is another mess because the single-ply TP disintegrates as soon as it makes contact with water. So I don’t use these that often. We did manage to find two-ply TP at a store not too far from here. Yes, we’ve stocked up.

Don’t touch that Shower Head
One thing I had to learn quickly was not to touch the shower heads. You see, they are electric! Yes, that’s right electric. That is how we get hot showers. You have to remember that once you turn on the electric switch of heat up your water, you cannot not adjust the temperature on the shower head because you’ll get shocked. Pure genius in this invention (sarcastic tone). I’m pretty shocked that its caught on, just about every middle class family home has one.

Make Time for Shopping

If you are in the mood for some shopping, make sure you got plenty of time and patience. Once you have finally figured out what you would like to purchase, you give it to a salesperson who writes up a ticket for it. That means, a hand written itemized list of all your items and amount. Then you take the ticket to another counter where you wait in line to pay for the items. Then you take the receipt back to the salesperson that you gave your merchandise to and show them the receipt, then finally you can go. These are just a few things that I can think of to let you know what to look forward to when you travel down to Brazil.