Thoughts About Brazil

As some of you might have figured, I spent my Christmas vacation in Brazil! As I'm now back in France, it's about time I started blogging again!
I thought I'd write about Brazil, a country that I have visited many times and that doesn't cease to surprise me.

First of all, many people see Brazil as a country with no middle-class where the rich commute by helicopter and where tourists are in constant danger of being abducted, killed or mugged. It is in no way my experience with this beautiful country. To me, Brazil is no more dangerous than France. In fact, I have never been in a situation there where I felt uncomfortable. It is just a matter of common sense: there are places where I wouldn't go in my hometown, so why would I venture myself in dangerous places abroad? It seems that many tourists overlook that simple fact and end up being mugged in the middle of a favela at midnight because they had the stupid idea to carry with them a few Rolex watches, brand new cell phones and camcorders. Isn't that asking to be mugged? Would they have gone to the Bronx with the same amount of electronics at the same time of the night if they lived in New York City? Certainly not! So why do that abroad?

Second thought: not all Brazilians live in a favela or own helicopters! There is a middle-class there. In fact, most people I know in Brazil lead the exact same life than my friends and I here in France or in the US. It used to be that their currency, the Real, was a bit weak so things were cheaper for me in Brazil than they were in France. Well, this isn't the case anymore! The Real is as strong as ever. The economy is booming. Real estate prices are catching up with prices in France. Don't forget that Lula, Brazil's former president, helped 20 million people out of poverty. With close to 200 million inhabitants, Brazil is a superpower in motion! I used to think that everything was cheaper there. This past vacation, I kept thinking that so many things were very expensive!

I used to half-jokingly say, ten years ago, that I wouldn't be able to afford retiring in Brazil when I reach retirement age. Well, only ten years later and still a long way from retirement, it is almost the truth!

So my advice to you if you're thinking about doing business in or with Brazil: IT IS TOO LATE! If you're not already there, you missed the train!

Prepaid iPhone Plans In Brazil

As I am spending this Holiday season in Brazil, you can only imagine that I did some research in the area of prepaid sim cards with unlimited data. The best thing I came up with was Tim Brasil. They sell prepaid cards for R$ 10 (around US$ 5), and you can buy additional credits in grocery stores by increments of R$ 6. Data connections are charged R$ 0.50 per day for unlimited usage, though speed is capped if you use more than 10 Mb in 24 hours or 300 Mb in 30 days. Voice call prices are kind of hard to understand but basically if you call another Tim number or make a local call to a landline, you will be charged R$ 0.25 per call no matter how long you stay on the line. Calls to other carriers are more expensive and charged by the minute (R$ 1.39 per minute if I got that right).
Using a jailbroken iPhone with MyWi works with the aforementioned plan and there are no APN settings to tweak. Since Tim won't sell microsim cards under that plan, you'd better bring a sim card cutter along if you plan on using an unsimlocked iPhone 4.
You may also want to check the sim card you're buying as some don't allow 3G connectivity. Only Tim owned stores seem to be selling those. Resellers don't (and unfortunately I could not find a Tim owned store where I am located)!
It is a no brainer for me as the 300 Mb that I'm probably gonna use in the next 2 weeks will end up costing me less than R$ 25 (= US$ 12) with some phone calls and text messages included in that price. If you compare this to an estimated charge of € 4000 (€ 13/Mb) by Orange France for the same usage, it looks like the best deal ever!

Please also note that you'll need a CPF number to buy a sim card (so you might ask a Brazilian friend to go to the store with you)!

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be happy to help.

Burger King On The Beach In Brazil

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I'm really looking forward to my Christmas trip to Brazil. Among other things, I'll get to spend a week in Guarujá, SP which is a very nice city by the Atlantic Ocean in São Paulo state. It may not be known to tourists but it is a popular destination for Paulistas (São Paulo residents). Guarujá may qualify as heaven on earth as its largest shopping mall "La Plage" located right on the beach is home to a Burger King! Sea, Burger & Sun: The Perfect Holiday combination. Another way to put it would be: A Burger King in a shopping mall with a French name in Brazil!


Stay tuned for more (Burger) pictures when I get there! Until then, feel free to wander the streets of Guarujá on Google street view!

New Year On The Beach In Guaruja (SP), Brazil

That is how 2008 started for me!

Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes!

Atlantico Signature Restaurant At Casa Grande Hotel in Guaruja (SP), Brazil

My wife and I had a lovely dinner last week at the Atlantico Signature Restaurant in Guaruja.

I particularly liked my "Tournedo" with a "Ganache" of Foie Gras which was a nice variation of the classic Tournedo Rossini!
We also got to taste the Chandon sparkling wine produced in Brazil by Moet & Chandon. It, actually, is very good and close, in my opinion, to the Moet & Chandon Champagne produced in France.

I also had a Belvedere Martini at the Lobby bar of the hotel. I must say I was surprised to find this coveted Vodka in Guaruja!

The hotel staff was very nice and helpful.

Thumbs up to the Casa Grande Hotel!

http://www.casagrande.com.br/

Behold The Holy Grail!

The Centurion Club in GRU (Sao Paulo airport):

My Trip To Sao Paulo

Here I am posting on my blog from Brazil! This has been a very tiring trip!

Our first flight of the day was a domestic one to Paris-CDG where we were supposed to have a little more than an hour to enjoy the AF Business Class lounge before boarding our second flight to Sao Paulo (GRU).

It unfortunately didn't work out that way as our first flight was delayed and took off 1 hr 1/2 later than scheduled. This meant that, eventhough we were met by a car at the exit of our first flight, we still had to rush through terminals in order to make it on time!

We hopefully made it and eventhough our journey did not start off where it should have (AF Business Class Lounge), we did enjoy our flight.

Let me emphasize the fact that I have always been amazed by the quality of the food in business class aboard AF! My "foie gras" was very good. I then had some lamb which was almost perfectly prepared and followed by a nice selection of cheese! I also had good wines and champagne, as well as a pear "eau-de-vie" with my coffee!

A very nice meal which, in my experience, exceeds by far what I have eaten in Business Class aboard other carriers.

Our second meal was only ok though so not worth writing about!

After more than 11 hours in the air, we finally landed in GRU, only to find out that one of our bags hadn't arrived! This is the third time for me this year and a bit too much in my opinion, particularly considering it was on business class flights and that I am a Flying Blue Platinum member... The one bag that arrived hadn't been tagged with a priority label meant for business class passengers. This happens very often with Air France and is very annoying to say the least. How can they advertise benefits that they don't actually enforce?