Sunday, Feb 17 – Day 62
There’s a joke here that Brazilians like to tell. During the creation of the world, one of the archangels looking over God’s shoulder comments, “It looks like you’ve given everything to Brazil. It has the longest beaches, the largest river, the biggest forest, and the best soil. The weather is always warm; there are no floods or hurricanes. Don’t you think that’s a little unfair?” “Ah,” God replies, “just wait until you see the people I’m putting there”.
Brazil has ATM’s everywhere. They are usually empty, however. And only a small number of them are hooked to the Plus or Cirrus system that lets you get money from an American bank. The first one I tried at the airport worked, but had a daily limit of R$400.00 (about US$230.00). It turns out that the limit was so low because it only had R$10.00 bills. Ever try to put forty $10.00 bills in your wallet or money clip?
The single ATM in Barra is not connected to US banks. So to get cash, I have to take a bus into Lagoa or even further into Centro (downtown Florianopolis), which is unique experience on its own. Cash is important because few businesses take credit cards, and when they do, they usually only accept one flavor. Visa or MasterCard, but not both. I’ve only got about R$20.00 left because I spent all my cash on renting the house. I still need to get some groceries and pay for my surfboard rental tomorrow morning.
My first opportunity is with the HSBC ATM in Lagoa, but I know that one is empty – I tried it yesterday. They fill the machines up on Friday, then, they don’t come back until Monday. If a machine is out of money, it just powers off, and this one is dark. So, it’s on to Centro.
Busses here run on a hub-and-spoke system. There are 9 “regions” on the island and each one has a “regional hub”. All of the local busses in a region take one route to the regional hub. If I want to go to another location with the region, I’ve got to go to the hub first, then switch to the other bus. Then there’s Centro, the main bus station for the whole island. All the regional hubs, then, have a bus to Centro. So, if you want to go to another region, you have to go to Centro first, then take a bus to that regional hub, then, maybe a fourth bus to get to your final destination.
A bus ride to a regional hub or Centro costs R$2.50, but you only pay once. When you get on the bus, you don’t pay the driver, there’s a second person managing a cash box and a turn-style. At the regional hub, you get off the first bus and enter the next bus from the back (behind the turn-style). This works because you can’t enter the regional hub on foot without paying the R$2.50 – so everyone that has access to a bus has already paid somewhere along the line. At Centro, everyone has to get off. To board a bus at Centro, you have to get on in the front and pay the R$2.50.
The bus from Barra to Lagoa, the regional hub, leaves the end-point here every 24 minutes but they don’t post a schedule, and they can’t tell you what time it will be at any of the intermediate stops. There are also small yellow busses, “executivos”, that run the same routes, but on a different time schedule. They go directly to Centro without stopping at the regional hub. They are air-conditioned, have bigger seats, and cost R$4.50 per trip. R$2.50 to $4.50 seems expensive for a 2-mile bus trip, but guess what? They have to charge a fare that covers the cost of the service. They can’t afford to subsidize it. You can buy a monthly bus pass, but not at a regional station. You have to go to Centro and also show proof of residency.
Well, after making it to Centro, which took an hour and a half for the 5-mile trip, it took 8 stops at various banks to find an ATM machine that worked. The elapsed time for the round-trip was 4 ½ hours. The only upside was that I could consider it a sight-seeing trip since I hadn’t been to Centro yet.
The currency is another challenge, especially the “monetas”, or coins. There are 10 different monetas in circulation. Some 10 centavo monetas are gold and small, others are silver and larger. Same for 25 centavo and 5 centavo monetas. There are two different 50 centavo monetas, both are silver, and one of them is the same size as the silver 25 centavo moneta. Not that big a deal, really, but a little inconvenient when you’ve got a fist-full various colors and sizes and you’re trying to count out the right amount for bus fare.
There’s a joke here that Brazilians like to tell. During the creation of the world, one of the archangels looking over God’s shoulder comments, “It looks like you’ve given everything to Brazil. It has the longest beaches, the largest river, the biggest forest, and the best soil. The weather is always warm; there are no floods or hurricanes. Don’t you think that’s a little unfair?” “Ah,” God replies, “just wait until you see the people I’m putting there”.
Brazil has ATM’s everywhere. They are usually empty, however. And only a small number of them are hooked to the Plus or Cirrus system that lets you get money from an American bank. The first one I tried at the airport worked, but had a daily limit of R$400.00 (about US$230.00). It turns out that the limit was so low because it only had R$10.00 bills. Ever try to put forty $10.00 bills in your wallet or money clip?
The single ATM in Barra is not connected to US banks. So to get cash, I have to take a bus into Lagoa or even further into Centro (downtown Florianopolis), which is unique experience on its own. Cash is important because few businesses take credit cards, and when they do, they usually only accept one flavor. Visa or MasterCard, but not both. I’ve only got about R$20.00 left because I spent all my cash on renting the house. I still need to get some groceries and pay for my surfboard rental tomorrow morning.
My first opportunity is with the HSBC ATM in Lagoa, but I know that one is empty – I tried it yesterday. They fill the machines up on Friday, then, they don’t come back until Monday. If a machine is out of money, it just powers off, and this one is dark. So, it’s on to Centro.
Busses here run on a hub-and-spoke system. There are 9 “regions” on the island and each one has a “regional hub”. All of the local busses in a region take one route to the regional hub. If I want to go to another location with the region, I’ve got to go to the hub first, then switch to the other bus. Then there’s Centro, the main bus station for the whole island. All the regional hubs, then, have a bus to Centro. So, if you want to go to another region, you have to go to Centro first, then take a bus to that regional hub, then, maybe a fourth bus to get to your final destination.
A bus ride to a regional hub or Centro costs R$2.50, but you only pay once. When you get on the bus, you don’t pay the driver, there’s a second person managing a cash box and a turn-style. At the regional hub, you get off the first bus and enter the next bus from the back (behind the turn-style). This works because you can’t enter the regional hub on foot without paying the R$2.50 – so everyone that has access to a bus has already paid somewhere along the line. At Centro, everyone has to get off. To board a bus at Centro, you have to get on in the front and pay the R$2.50.
The bus from Barra to Lagoa, the regional hub, leaves the end-point here every 24 minutes but they don’t post a schedule, and they can’t tell you what time it will be at any of the intermediate stops. There are also small yellow busses, “executivos”, that run the same routes, but on a different time schedule. They go directly to Centro without stopping at the regional hub. They are air-conditioned, have bigger seats, and cost R$4.50 per trip. R$2.50 to $4.50 seems expensive for a 2-mile bus trip, but guess what? They have to charge a fare that covers the cost of the service. They can’t afford to subsidize it. You can buy a monthly bus pass, but not at a regional station. You have to go to Centro and also show proof of residency.
Well, after making it to Centro, which took an hour and a half for the 5-mile trip, it took 8 stops at various banks to find an ATM machine that worked. The elapsed time for the round-trip was 4 ½ hours. The only upside was that I could consider it a sight-seeing trip since I hadn’t been to Centro yet.
The currency is another challenge, especially the “monetas”, or coins. There are 10 different monetas in circulation. Some 10 centavo monetas are gold and small, others are silver and larger. Same for 25 centavo and 5 centavo monetas. There are two different 50 centavo monetas, both are silver, and one of them is the same size as the silver 25 centavo moneta. Not that big a deal, really, but a little inconvenient when you’ve got a fist-full various colors and sizes and you’re trying to count out the right amount for bus fare.
