Tell me about Brazil

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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I'm going to Campinas Brazil for about a year. I have never been there before and it's time to get some information. I'm going to be learning portugese. How similar is portugese to spanish? will I be able to talk to people who speak spanish easily? What about the water? Is it like mexico where you stay away at all costs? How many tape worms am I going to have?

I'm also going to be bringing my riovolt. What kind of connectors am I going to need to plug it into the wall? And on the subject anybody have any recommends for tiny portable speakers with good sound I can bring along? And what about the mail system? How crappy is it? I want to take pics with my digital camera and send back the SD cards through the mail so my parents can save them on their computer. I won't have any computer or internet

Toss me anything you know.
 

MacGaven

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2002
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Portuguese is fairly similiar to Spanish but once you arrive you'll discover the differences and learn to speak each independently.

I would purchase an international power adapter kit, which can be used for all your portable electronics. I don't know what the standards are in Brazil but a kit like this is very helpful when you travel a lot.
 

Vadatajs

Diamond Member
Aug 28, 2001
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I can't remember what kind of connections they use, but if you're going to plug in anything important, make sure you use a surge protector. Power quality in brazil is pretty bad, and subject to spikes and dips. That was my experience anyway.

USE SUNBLOCK.
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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Thanks.

Anybody got any information on water or just quality of life in general?
 

kuk

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2000
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Campinas is a large and wealthy city 100km from Sao Paulo (an hour drive), the largest city and financial center of Brazil. It's a city that survives from IT company's installed in the area, as well as home for two university campii. Cost of living is lower than Sao Paulo, but still a bit high compared to smaller cities. If you'll be getting paid in dollars (say U$1.000/month), you'll find no difficulties living there.

It is safe to drink tap water, but it's still better to get bottled (called "mineral" here) water. It's lighter, has no chloride (used to treat it) and tastes better. Food is also not a problem; restaurants and supermarkets on the most part follow strict hygiene standards. Just use your common sense when going into one. And there's no need to worry about tape worms.

You'll get around with spanish ... if you have good notion, you'll probably understand portuguese well. It's not hard to find someone that speaks english, so you can also get around this way. But do learn the common expressions used in daily life.

About power connectors, most outlets feature both circular o---o and rectangular l----l connectors, although it's rare to find an outlet with the third (ground) hole. If you have a device that has one prong larger than the other |--l, you might run into some difficulties. Use a surge protector as you would use in your home; power quality is almost as good as in the US.

If you have any other questions, just ask.
Kuk
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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Thanks for the informative replies.

Kuk, do you have anything to say on the mail? I want to send regular letters back to my family and I can easily fit a tiny SD card into that, almost completely un-noticable. But those SD cards are expensive and don't want them getting lost/stolen.

Are there any public internet cafe's? How much do those cost? Because I could even plug my camera into the USB and just e-mail the pictures back home if that's possible.

Thanks so much.
 

kuk

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2000
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Internet cafe's are easy to find, but in a large city, they may be far from where you are staying. Still, most bookshops have them, and there are also lots of LAN houses (for online gaming), which you can also use. From my experience, they cost between U$1 and U$2 an hour.

Mail is a more delicate situation. It may arive in the U.S., but would you trust USPS for this stuff, if it's hidden inside a delicate envelope? I wouldn't. There's a service called SEDEX which is equivelent to priority mail, and it may be your best bet.

Kuk