In Lean Times, Coupons for Online Retailers Grow - NYTimes.com

In Lean Times, Coupons for Online Retailers Grow - NYTimes.com

I'm getting into online shopping more now, with Amazon.com, bhphotovideo.com, priceline.com and hotwire.com.

Careful with "phantom" VARIG flights (use TAM to fly to Paris)

According to news reports, VARIG currently has many "phantom" flights that exist only on paper, or on the computer. You can buy a ticket and reserve a seat on one of these flights, but they always get cancelled on the day, leaving you with a re-routing problem.

Until VARIG resolves its financial situation, I am avoiding their flights. There's also been a run on VARIG miles, with lines at ticket offices of people trying to redeem their miles.

For my vacation in France, I bought tickets on TAM, which gives me miles on American Airlines. Unfortunately TAM is not part of the One World Alliance, so I can't use the their lounge or first class check-in line.

The flight from Salvador to Paris via São Paulo was good: on-time, good service, average food, crowded.

Using GPRS data in Brazil...

Savvy international travelers carry an unlocked GSM phone, and buy pre-paid SIM cards from local wireless operators where they travel. This way they get a local number, and make cheaper calls. But nowadays, international travelers also want to use data services to check e-mail, send photos, etc. Therefore many people ask: can I use GPRS while in Brazil?

The answer is yes. Cingular and T-Mobile USA have GPRS roaming agreements with Brazilian carriers, so you can just use the same SIM card you have at home to check your e-mail.

If you are going to buy a pre-paid SIM card in Brazil, I recommend using Claro because it supports GPRS data in pre-paid. But you also need to properly configure your phone, and it will be difficult to get anyone at Claro to help you. (Their sales people don't know how to do it because Claro phones are pre-configured with the proper settings.)

The proper data settings to use with Claro are:

For WAP:
APN: wap.claro.com.br
login: claro
password: claro
WAP Gateway: 200.169.126.11
Port: 9201
home URL: http://wap.claro.com.br

For MMS:
APN: mms.claro.com.br
login: claro
password: claro
Gateway: 200.169.126.10
Port: 9201
server URL: http://mms.claro.com.br

If you have a CDMA phone from Verizon, you can get it activated on a pre-paid account with the Brazilian CDMA carrier Vivo. The pre-paid Vivo account supports 1X data, but unfortunately you also need to configure certain network settings on the phone, and in CDMA phones these settings are not accessible by the user.

If you already have your Verizon 1x phone with you in Brazil and really want to use data services, it may be worth a try to contact the local technical representative of the phone's manufacturer (e.g., Motorola or LG). The Vivo store will give you the address of the nearest one.

Sprint phones are usually locked and don't work with Vivo.

No need to charter a helicopter for a view of Rio de Janeiro

From Rio de Janeiro I had to go to São Paulo for more business meetings, so I took the very convenient "Ponte Aérea" from Santos Dummont (SDU) to Congonhas (CGH). Arriving at SDU, I bought a ticket at the TAM counter for about 90 USD, and got a window seat on the right side of the plane. Flights leave every 30 minutes, so there is no need to book in advance.

If you want see Rio de Janeiro from the air, there is no need to charter a helicopter. Just get a window seat on the right side of the airplane. Immediately after take-off, the plane makes a sweeping right-hand turn over Niterói, offering a view of Niterói, the entrance of Guanabara Bay, Botafogo, and Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf). Then you fly over Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, São Conrado, Barra, etc. This is the best view out of an airplane window that I have ever experienced.

I did not like the Rio Othon Palace Hotel in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Although this blog is mostly about Salvador, I decided it would be okay to also write about other places when I travel. Salvador is a great place to live and visit, but is also limited in many ways, so traveling to other places is often necessary.

On Monday I went to Rio de Janeiro for business meetings. Cunha, my travel agent, booked me at the Rio Othon Palace (tel. 2522-1522) hotel in Copacabana, which according to him was the cheapest 5-star hotel in Rio. If the travel agent pre-pays the hotel, you can get a cheaper rate than if you give your credit card when checking in.

I did not like the Othon Palace, and I will not stay in it again. I thought the rooms were old, and needed renovations. Use of the gym is not included, and you need to pay extra. They do not have broadband Internet, so you need to dial up to check e-mail.

On the plus side, they have a great view of the beach, comparable to the corner rooms at Caesar Park in Ipanema. The gym, although not included in the room rate, is very well equiped, and even has Pilates. Also they have very strong water pressure in the showers. Taking a shower was the best thing I did at the Othon.

Although the price of the Othon was low, I will stay elsewhere next time I go to Rio. My favorite hotel in Rio is Caesar Park in Ipanema (tel. 2525-2525), but they are usually very expensive.

I have also stayed many times at the Rio International (Av. Atlântica, 1500, tel. 2456-8000) in Copacabana. It is not a five-star, but still quite nice, and has been recently renovated.

I stayed once at the JW Marriott (tel. 2545-6500) in Copacabana, and although it is very new and has broadband Internet access, I would not stay there again because the rooms have no views! I think it is unacceptable that a hotel on Avenida Atlantica in front of Copacabana Beach does not have a view.

I also stayed once at the Sheraton (tel. 2274-1122) in São Conrado. The hotel is nice, and the rates are relatively low, but I did not like the fact that you must take a taxi go step foot outside the hotel. Also I am personally upset at them because when I arrived at 10 AM from the airport and tried to check in, they told me I had to wait until noon or pay an extra half day. What jerks!!!

Cunha, my travel agent from Iguatemi Turismo

My travel agent is Cunha, from Iguatemi Turismo (tel. 3450-0200). One day I walked into his agency in Shopping Iguatemi, and got my tickets to the U.S. through him. I am pretty sure I am his best customer - I am Executive Platinum in the American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flier program, and I fly internationally almost every month. I wouldn't say that Cunha is the best travel agent, but he is reasonably reliable. I don't feel he calls me back quickly enough, but I still stick with him because he is a known quantity.

For domestic travel I sometimes use Kontik at the Salvador airport. They will check in for you, so you don't have to stand in line. They will also hold your reservation until the last minute, until you call and request that they e-ticket it. This is useful if you are not sure when you'll be able to get out of a meeting and go to the airport. Unfortunately the Kontik agency at the airport does not handle international travel.

Antonieta, my wife's personal organizer, told me that her daughter is the best travel agent in Salvador, and I should start using her. If I ever do, I will write about it here.

Beach Bars in Salvador

Saturday morning was the first sunny day in many weeks in Salvador, so we took my visiting friend Sergei to the beach. We drove north to Itapuã, and stopped by Rua "K". At the end of this street, there is a beach and a few bars that serve drinks and food.

These beach bars, called "barracas" in Portuguese, are characteristic of the beach experience in Salvador (they are not found in beaches in Rio de Janeiro.) They offer beach umbrellas, and plastic chairs and tables. You basically sit there and wait for the waiter to bring you drinks and food.

Rua "K" is a nice place to bring a visitor to the city because of the idyllic atmosphere, the boats bringing fish to sell, and the view of the city. We took some photos and drank coconuts before moving on.

We then drove farther north to the bar called Lôro de Patamares at Aleluia beach. This "barraca" was voted best in category in the annual "Melhor de Salvador" edition of Veja magazine. Our unfortunate first impression was of aggressive waiters competing for customers. Each waiter has a territory, and they are uncomfortably pushy in trying to convince you to sit at one of their tables.

We drank cold beer, and ate typical beach "barraca" seafood: "caranguejos" and "lambretas". "Caranguejo" is a local crab with a very hard shell that you have to crack with a wooden mallet, and "lambreta" is a local type of clam. The food and service at Lôro de Patamares was good, but not outstanding.

Long wait at Paraíso Tropical on Saturday

As planned we went to lunch on Saturday at Paraíso Tropical in Cabula. We got there at about 3 PM, and knew things were going to be tough as soon as we saw the number of cars parked outside.

Turns out there was a large party of twenty or thirty people celebrating a birthday, occupying the entire area upstairs. When we arrived, we were seated immediately at the entrance patio, along with a few Others who were not part of the birtyday party.

Beto Pimentel, the owner, was in the kitchen with a stressed expression on his face. It turns out, he told us later, that his wife had given the weekend off to the head cook on account of Mother's Day. "My family has set me back 10 years!" he complained.

Although we took care to order as soon as we sat down, the wait for the food was still long and difficult. The food arrived a little over an hour after we ordered, which is a long time even by the relaxed standards of restaurants in Bahia. In the end we finished our meal before 5 PM. We were in the restaurant for less than two hours, but it seemed an eternity.

The food, when it finally arrived, was excellent as usual. We ate fruit from the large basket they bring for dessert, and took the leftover fruit home in the plastic bags they provided.

Attempting to make up for the long wait, Beto asked me to come back any day Monday to Thursday, and he would give me a personal tour of the fruit orchard in the back of the restaurant, from where all the dessert fruit is picked.

Although my wife complained during the long wait that she would never return to this restaurant again, I personally cannot resist their food, and would Paraíso Tropical a break for the unusual conditions they faced that day.

Paraíso Tropical
R. Edgar Loureiro, 98-B, Cabula
Salvador, BA
Telephone: 3384-7464