sao Paulo

[Rvarghcrna]

Heading to Brazil in May, hope lots of big ones to taste

[Quincy_7]

The thing keeping me from going to Brazil or Colombia is that I would most likely be going alone with no knowledge of the local language. I don't even know how I'd get a cab to my hotel, let alone find my way around a city.

[SirBillybob]

The taxi services at the airports in SP and Rio are accustomed to dealing with foreigners and offer flat rate vouchers priced according to your hotel zone. So you do not have to deal with paying driver, who will simply accept the receipt that you will have had the option to pay by credit card at the taxi service desk.

 

By about my second visit I was negotiating down the taxi flat rate and by third visit using Über exclusively. You do need to be comfortable texting the driver within the app, involving copying and pasting brief translations, but usually only about 10% of the time. Über rates by distance are about 25-35% the cost in North America.

 

Before any grasp of Portuguese, I had no difficulty arranging sessions with for-pay guys at the various sex trade sauna/bar establishments.

 

Many hotels offer to accept pre-payment for the trip back to airport, or the doorman will help you arrange a flat cash rate with a hailed cab.

 

Both cities have high-functioning Metro underground systems at about 1USD per fare, actually easier IMHO than NYC. I have spent months in Rio and never had the need to go anywhere that was not accessible to a Metro station. Much less time in SP but usually use Metro.

 

I have used Über satisfactorily in Fortaleza, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre.