Basics - The Rough Guide to Brazil - page 42

firecrackers, a thanksgiving Mass is celebrated, and
then everyone turns to the secular pleasures of the
fair, the market and the bottle. In Belém, this
tradition reaches its zenith in the annual Círio on
the second Sunday of October (see p.339), when
crowds of over a million follow the procession of
the image of Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, but most
festas are small-scale, small-town events.
One of the country's best agricultural shows is
Pomerode's annual Festa Pomerana (see p.598),
which takes place in the first half of January and has
done much to encourage the promotion of local
German traditions.

Figueirense in Florianópolis and Sport Club do
Recife (the latter two promoted to Série A in 2013)
have been successful in recent years too.
Tickets are very cheap by European standards;
good seats at a clássico will cost no more than R$75,
but an ordinary match will be half that or less - the
issue is availability rather than price. For clássicos ,
hotels often have packages that include transport,
tickets and a guide for around R$100 all in, an
expensive way of doing it but often the only
practical option if you can't get a ticket a few days
in advance. For ordinary matches, you can almost
always turn up half an hour beforehand and look for
the bilheteria , the ticket o ce, which usually only
takes cash.
Brazilian stadiums tend to be enormous and
rarely full save for clássicos , matches between major
teams. All major stadiums are two-deckers, most are
now all-seaters but a few still have terracing on the
lower deck: upper-deck seats are arquibancada ,
lower-deck geral . Some stadiums are worth going
out of your way for: the Maracanã in Rio, it goes
without saying, but also the beautiful Art Deco
Pacaembu in São Paulo.
There is not as much of a problem with crowd
violence in Brazil as in many European countries,
but don't wear a Brazilian club shirt just to be on
the safe side: non-Brazilian shirts are no problem
(except for Argentinian ones - the two countries
don't get on well in footballing terms), and Brazilian
fans are extremely friendly to foreigners. December
is the off-season; otherwise, a mixture of state and
national championships ensures constant football.
For more detail on football history and culture see
Contexts (see p.675).

Football
Going to a football match in Brazil is
something even those bored by the
game will enjoy as spectacle: the
stadiums are sights in themselves and
big matches are watched behind a screen
of tickertape and waving flags, huge
banners, massed drums, fireworks and
firecrackers, to the chants, roars and
whistling of the world's most passionate
football supporters.
Brazil's major teams have traditionally been
concentrated in Rio and São Paulo, though things
have been changing in recent years and Série A
(the top league) is a lot more competitive. In Rio,
Flamengo is the best-supported team in the
country, and its distinctive shirt of red and black
hoops is seen everywhere. Its clashes with
perennial Rio rival Fluminense (maroon, green and
white stripes) at the Maracanã stadium are among
the most intense matches in Brazilian club football.
Botafogo (black and white stripes with the famous
white-star badge) and Vasco (white with black
diagonal stripe) vie with “Fla-Flu” for dominance.
Fluminense and Vasco were both relegated to
Série B in 2013.
São Paulo's two leading teams, São Paulo (white
with red and black hoops) and Coríntians (white),
share a similarly bitter rivalry, while Portuguesa
(red and green), Palmeiras (green) and Santos
(white) make up the other major teams in the
region. Teams that now consistently compete with
the best of Rio and São Paulo are Internacional
(red) and Grêmio (blue, white and black stripes)
from Porto Alegre, and Atlético Mineiro (white)
and Cruzeiro (dark blue) from Belo Horizonte (the
latter won Série A in 2013). Bahia and Vitória (both
in Salvador), Atlético Paranaense in Curitiba,

Travel essentials
Costs and money
Prices in Brazil have risen considerably in recent
years - indeed, the custo Brasil (“Brazil cost”) has
become one of the most contentious issues of the
day, with millions of Brazilians unable to participate
in the nation's “middle-class” economy (the reasons
are complex, but it's mainly to do with the
increased value of the real thanks to high
commodity prices outside Brazil, and chronic
economic ine ciency inside the country). Though
budget options remain, in most of Brazil you'll pay
relatively high prices comparable to the US and
Europe for car rental, decent hotels, meals in restau-
rants and long-distance flights - things like