Basics - The Rough Guide to Brazil - page 40

venomous snakes are tiny, easily able to snuggle
inside a shoe or a rucksack pocket. Always shake
out your hammock and clothes, keep rucksack
pockets tightly closed and take special care when it
rains, as snakes, scorpions and other nasty beasties
quite sensibly head for shelter in huts.
If you do get bitten by a snake, try to kill it for
identification - but only if this can easily be done.
Contrary to popular belief, cutting yourself and
sucking out blood will do you more harm than
good. It goes without saying that you should get
yourself to a doctor as soon as possible. Health
posts in the nearest town may have serum, but you
must know the type of snake involved.
Due to the humidity, any cut or wound gets
infected very easily. Always clean cuts or bites with
alcohol or purified water before dressing. As a
general rule, leave all insects alone and never
handle them. Even the smallest ants, caterpillars
and bees can give you nasty stings and bites, and
scorpions, large soldier ants and some species of
bee will give you a fever for a day or two as well.

Brasil ( W vogue.globo.com) is a quality monthly
magazine offering great insight into the style of the
Brazilian elite. The monthly Placar ( W placar.abril
.com.br) is essential for anyone wanting to get to
serious grips with Brazilian football.
Apart from in airports, Rio and São Paulo, where
you can find the International New York Times and
The Economist , English-language newspapers
and magazines are very di cult to find in Brazil.

Television

Cable and satellite TV is now extremely common
in Brazil (especially in hotels), meaning access to
the main US channels (though with programmes
mostly dubbed into Portuguese), and a handful of
channels from the rest of the world. Don't expect
much more than CNN and the odd movie
channel in English. Domestic Brazilian program-
ming is poor to say the least, but often compul-
sive viewing even if you don't understand a word
of Portuguese. There are several Brazilian national
networks, of which the most dominant is TV
Globo , the centrepiece of the Globo empire,
Latin America's largest media conglomerate. The
other major national networks are TV
Bandeirantes, SBT, Record and the non-profit
public broadcasting TV Brasil.
Local channels are still dominated by game shows
and telenovelas , glossy soap operas that have
massive audiences in the evenings, though viewing
numbers have been in decline in recent years.
Football coverage is also worth paying attention
to, a gabbling, incomprehensible stream of
commentary, punctuated by remarkably elongated
shouts of “Gooooool” whenever anyone scores.

The media
Brazil has a vibrant, free regional press
rather than a national one. Even the top
Rio and São Paulo papers, available
throughout the country, are a little
parochial; elsewhere, newspapers are at
best mediocre but are always valuable
for listings of local events. Brazil also
boasts a lurid but entertaining tabloid
press, specializing in gruesome murders,
political scandals and football.

Newspapers and magazines
The top newspapers are the slightly left-of-centre
Folha de São Paulo ( W folha.uol.com.br) and the
Rio-based, right-of-centre O Globo ( W oglobo.globo
.com), usually available a day late in large cities
throughout the country. Both are independent
and have extensive international news, cultural
coverage and entertainment listings. Even stodgier
but reasonable is the right-wing Estado de São Paulo
( W estadao.com.br), while the Valor Econômico
( W valor.com.br) is a high-quality equivalent of the
Financial Times or Wall Street Journal .
There are also two good weekly current-affairs
magazines : Veja ( W veja.abril.com.br) and Isto É
( W istoe.com.br). You will find Brazilian editions of
most major fashion and women's magazines: Vogue

Festivals
Carnaval is the most important festival in
Brazil, but there are other parties, too,
from saints' days to celebrations based
around elections or the World Cup.

Carnaval
When Carnaval comes, the country gets down to
some of the most serious partying in the world. A
Caribbean carnival might prepare you a little, but
what happens in Brazil is more spectacular, goes on
longer and is on a far larger scale. Every place in
Brazil, large or small, has some form of Carnaval, and
in three places especially - Rio, Salvador and Olinda,