Tips and Tricks

• Arriving in Brazil, one gets a little sheet of paper, despite it looking like a restaurant bill, THIS IS YOUR ENTRY VISA! Keep it in your passport, do not loose is, for you will have to hand it in at the airport when leaving.
• In general, but especially if you are going to Rio de Janeiro or roundabouts, or if you are going to the beach, it is advisable to make copies of your official documents, and keep the originals at the hotel.
• Daylight saving time starts in Porto Alegre on Midnight between Saturday, October 14, 2006 and Sunday, October 15, 2006 local standard time, which is the weekend before the wedding. (Remember, it will be spring in Porto Alegre.) (In Europe and North America DST ends on the 29th of October, So the time difference between Porto Alegre and Amsterdam is -5 hours before 14 October, -4 hours at the wedding, and -3 hours after the 29th; at the wedding the difference with UK and Portugal will be -3 hours, with Boston +2 hours, with Vancouver +5 hours). At the weeding, the sun will rise at 6:41 AM, reaches its highest point at1:09 PM, and sets at 7:39 PM.
• Porto Alegre is a subtropical climate, so you can expect oscillations of 20 degrees, especially in the spring. Be sure to bring: swimming suit, shorts and T-shirts, but also pants and warmer shirts. Bring a light jacket. If you plan to go in Brazil hiking off yellow-stoned paths, bring hiking boots and don't wear shorts (because of the snakes and plants) .
• A tip for anyplace you go in the world: be sure, when you go somewhere else, to drink bottled water. This advice, and many other tips to prevent getting ill during your travel, can be found on this webpage.
• In Brazil the main language is Portuguese. It is a Brazilian version of Portuguese, differing mainly in pronunciation. So, Portuguese from Portugal is understood perfectly. More or less everybody understands Spanish, and when you start speaking Spanish, most people will talk back in ``Portunhol'' . It is generally not trivial to find people speaking English, but everybody understands a couple of words, so you should always try.
• The coin is the Real (plural: Reais), which contains 100 centavos. This coin is the only one used in the country outside the airports. In commerce (shops, restaurants etc) all prices come in Reais, not in dollars. If, when asking a price, they give it to you in dollars, there is a great chance that they might be over-rating you, so be careful with this. (As opposed to Argentina, where ALL prices come in dollars as well, and this is something standard). To be confusing, the symbol for the Real is the $-sign (or, very often, R$). What is meant is Reais! For up-to-date conversion rates, click here.
• For Dutch it is not necessary to have a visa for a tourist visit of less than 90 days. Note, that the passport at arrival has to be valid for at least 6 more months. Many details about Dutch traveling to Brazil can be found here.
• About vaccinations: if you are going to a region which has had cases of yellow fever (look at the list), as for example Foz de Iguaçu, it is obligatory to take Yellow Fever vaccination. It's recommended to take it at least 10 days before traveling. It is valid for 10 years. The good news is, that there is no yellow fever whatsoever in Rio Grande do Sul, so for the wedding itself it is not needed. Also when you have traveled through a region which has yellow fever, Brazil requires when entering the country to show that you are vaccinated against it. For example, coming from northern Argentina into Brazil. Other vaccinations that are advised are against tetanus, diphtheria, and hepatitis A (there is no risk of Malaria except in the middle of the Amazon). Most people will have been vaccinated against these diseases, in which case a boost vaccination might be a good idea if you are planning to travel around further and off the coast. Enter in contact with your local health center just in case.