Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ROUGH GUIDES TRAVEL INSURANCE
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Rural areas and small towns, especially in Minas
Gerais, the Northeast and the South,
are conservative; the medium-sized and larger cities
less so. A useful
resource
to consult before your trip
is
W
mixbrasil.uol.com.br; although the text is in
Portuguese, there are enough English indicators to
allow non-Portuguese speakers to navigate easily
through it and benefit from the listings and tips.
couple of dollars per kilo. Ironing (
passar
) costs a
little more.
Mail
A
post o
ce
(run by the national postal service
Correios;
W
correios.com.br) is called a
correio
,
identifiable by their bright yellow postboxes and
signshops An imposing
Correios e Telégrafos
building will always be found in the centre of a city
of any size, but there are also small of
ces and
kiosks scattered around that only deal with mail.
Queues are often a problem, but you can save time
by using one of their franking machines for stamps;
the lines move much more quickly.
Stamps
(
selos
)
are most commonly available in two varieties, either
for mailing within Brazil or abroad. A foreign
postage stamp costs around R$1.80 for either a
postcard or a letter up to 10g. It is expensive to
send parcels abroad.
Mail within Brazil takes three or four days (longer
in the North and Northeast), while
airmail
letters to
Europe and North America usually take about a
week.
Surface mail
takes about a month to North
America, and two to Europe. Although the postal
system is generally very reliable, it is not advisable
to send valuables through the mail.
Insurance
Prior to travelling, you should take out an
insurance policy
to cover against theft, loss and
illness or injury. Before paying for a new policy,
however, it's worth checking whether you already
have some degree of coverage - credit-card
companies, home-insurance policies and private
medical plans sometimes cover you and your
belongings when you're abroad. Remember that
when securing baggage insurance, make sure that
the per-article limit - typically under £500 equiva-
lent - will cover your most valuable possession.
Internet
Brazil has the highest number of computers with
internet access
in South America and all things
online are highly developed, with wi-fi increasingly
available; as a result, internet cafés are dwindling in
number, though still common in every town.
Maps
We've provided detailed full-colour
maps
throughout the Guide. More detailed maps are
surprisingly hard to get hold of outside Brazil and
are rarely very good:
Bartholomew, International
Travel Maps, Michelin and National Geographic
produce country maps (typically 1:4,200,000), but
these are not updated often. Much better are the six
regional maps in the
Mapa Rodoviário Touring
series
(1:2,500,000), which clearly mark all the major routes,
although these, even in Brazil, are di
cult to find.
A useful compendium of
city maps
and
main
road networks
is published by Guias Quatro Rodas,
Laundry
Even the humblest of hotels has a
lavadeira
, who
will wash and iron your clothes. If the rates are not
clearly published, agree on a price beforehand.
Larger hotels always have set prices for laundry
services - they are usually surprisingly expensive.
Very common in larger cities are
lavandarías
, which
operate a very useful
por peso
system - the clothes
are weighed at the entrance, you pay per kilo, and
pick them up washed and folded the next day for a
