The Rio de Janeiro’s governmental body Fundação Estadual de Engenharia do Meio Ambiente mantains a webpage where Internet users can check out the water conditions for a number of beaches on the state of Rio: Balneabilidade de Praias. there is data for Rio city, Magé, São Gonçalo, Niterói, Saquarema, Araruama, Iguaba Grande, Arraial do Cabo, Cabo Frio, Búzios, Casemiro de Abreu, Rio das Ostras, Macaé, Campos and São João da Barra.

Once you enter the Balneabilidade de Praias section, you need to select your beach of interest to view the data available for it.

See also on this blog: Beaches of Santa Catarina: quality index

[Photo by Renata Diem reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific post devoted to Balneário Camboriú, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

There are several portals with thorough information on Bombinhas. Best among them are Bombinhas.com, Bombinhas Online, Bombinhas.com.br, Guia Bombinhas and the City Council’s own website Prefeitura Municipal de Bombinhas.

Interesting info can also be found in pages covering the entire state of Santa Catarina (where Bombinhas is found). Santa Catarina Turismo has a section where Bombinhas is mentioned. Other sites with information are Bela Santa Catarina and Guia Santa Catarina.

The Brazilian Central Bank acknowledged recently what anybody who’s been to Brazil for longer than two months knows perfectly well: there is a serious shortage of small change in the country. The reasons are diverse. The bank blames piggy banks, poor things.

Whether the pigs are guilty or not, the truth is that a by-product of the lack of small change is the irritating practice of always rounding up the change - in favour of the seller, not the buyer. This is a constant practice in all commercial transactions, and 9 out of 10 times the balance is tipped against you. If you pay with a R$5 note for something worth R$4,97, you can be sure you will not get any change in return.

While one tends to accept this practice in the case of small shops or people selling stuff on the streets, one wonders what the impact of this practice is on the cash-flow of large supermarket networks.

Even more annoying is the practice of trading money for sweets or chewing gum. Your meal costs R$9,80 and you pay with a R10,00 note? You might be offered two pieces of chewing gum instead of the R$0,20 you are owed. Please note that this is a one-way practice. You will never be allowed to pay for your meal with chewing gum.

P.S.: of course this is a common practice in many other countries around the world. But in my personal experience, this practice happens in Brazil with an alarming frequency.

So here’s November, summer is just around the corner. Time to have a look at some of the topics we covered in the blog during October.

We published several posts with links to pages of interest on Salvador de Bahia, Canoa Quebrada, Porto de Galinhas and Balneário Camboriú.

For those visiting Rio, there is a new pass in town, the Rio Pass, with interesting discounts if you are planning to visit the main tourist attractions.

We had a quick look at the humble Brazilian bananas.

We mentioned Aquela Passagem!’s new address.

There was a word of warning about the couvert artístico.

We published the third and final instalment of our detailed tour through the island of Florianópolis: Florianópolis South: what to do and where to go.

We visited the beautiful Octavio Café, in São Paulo.

In terminal Tietê bus station in São Paulo we mentioned the three main bus stations in São Paulo.

There was a new destination card: Destination: Maresias.

Finally, we reminded everyone of the introduction of daylight savings time in three Brazilian regions.

A happy November to all readers and friends of the blog.

Maresias is a popular beach located in the north coast of the state of São Paulo. In a way, it is São Paulo modest answer to Ipanema.

WE LIKE THE MOST: the beach, the mountains, the colour of the sea.

WE LIKE THE LEAST: as elsewhere along de Atlantic Rainforest coast, environmental crime running unchecked.

HOW TO GET THERE: Maresias is 173 km from São Paulo. You can drive there (depending on traffic conditions, it can take anything between 2 and 4 hours). The bus company Litorânea has several daily services to Maresias from the terminal TietE bus station in São Paulo. The bus trip takes four hours.

CAREFUL WITH: traffic conditions during the high season and weekends. The windy road is a constant witness to serious accidents - no doubt helped by the fact that many youngsters attending parties and nightclubs in Maresias do drink and drive on a regular basis.

FAVOURITE PLACES: the main beach.

PIECE OF ADVICE:

• Maresias is absolute piece and quiet during the low season, to the point of making you wonder what the whole Maresias hype is about.
• During the weekends, January, and any extended bank holidays, Maresias thrives. Accommodation is hard to come by and driving around becomes a nightmare.
• if you are in Maresias, you must visit the nearby beaches of Camburi and Barra do Sahy. If you have a car it’s a short drive away. Otherwise, local buses will take you there.

ACCOMMODATION: complete listing of Hotels and Pousadas in Maresias.

WEATHER FORECAST: The weather in Maresias for the next 10 days (data from São Sebastião)

GOOGLE MAPS: Maresias

PHOTOS: Maresias

[Don’t forget to check out the list of other destinations already covered in this blog, here]

The Brazil Travel Blog brings you every month a calendar for you to use on your computer desktop.

Here is the November 2008 calendar, a street view of wonderful Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

DOWNLOAD:

- Large size
- Small size

Remember, a new calendar every month!

We’ve made another update in Accommodation in Brazil, with three new blog posts with full listings of accommodation in Barra do Sahy and Barra do Una in the state of São Paulo and Praia do Forte in the state of Bahia.

[Photo by unnamedsoldier reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific post devoted to Balneário Camboriú, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

Camboriú has an official website: Secretária de Turismo de Balneário Camboriu (in Portuguese only).

There are several portals, including Camboriú.com.br, Camboriu.org, praia Camboriu.com.br and guia Camboriu.com.br. They all have sections on accommodation.

Interesting info can also be found in pages covering the entire state of Santa Catarina (where Balneário Camboriú is found). Santa Catarina Turismo has a section in English where Camboriú is mentioned. Other pages with information include Bela Santa Catarina and Guia Santa Catarina.

In places with sizeable concentrations of tourists it is quite common for restaurants to present a band or an artist playing live music. Could be just the one singer with a guitar, could be a bigger group. Whenever there is live music at the restaurant it’s good to pay attention, as your bill will include a couvert artístico - an extra charge. In many cases the couvert artístico is reasonable and you don’t mind paying for it. Live performances are more often than not of a really good quality. But be careful as the couvert artístico of a number of places is outrageously expensive.

[Photo by Jean Jader reproduced under a Creative Commons licence]

To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific post devoted to Porto de Galinhas, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

There are two portals with complete and detailed information on Porto de Galinhas: Destino Porto de Galinhas and Porto de Galinhas.com.br. Unsurprisingly, none of the two have a version in English. You can also check out the much uglier Porto de Gallinhas tur.br. As usual on portals, you will find sections on accommodation, activities and info on how to get to Porto de Galinhas.