James Page, The Brazilians. An excellent, relatively brief discussion of Brazil's history and the forces influencing its present. Good discussions of the roots of Carnaval and the Brazilian passion for "the beautiful game."

Chris McGowan & Ricardo Pessanha, The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil. A decent overview of Brazilian music, although it misses the newer styles of Brazilian funk and hip-hop. A good list of must-have recordings.

Priscilla Ann Goslin, How to Be a Carioca. The real survival guide for the Rio tourist. Funny as hell and right on target. Thanks to Rhonda of Riotrips.com for recommending this one.

(The books above can be ordered through Amazon.com)

David Appell & Paul Balido (Eds), Hot! International: Love and Sex in 7 Languages. The only phrasebook covering phrases like "Suck my cock" and "Take the handcuffs off." The seven languages include Portuguese, and the girls get a kick out of this book. Indispensable, but hard to find.

Enough, Already!

That about wraps up this rambling monologue. Ol' Bwana is already counting the days until his next trip. I hope you find this useful. If you have additions or corrections, please post them.

BD

BD
Thanks for posting this very informative Rio Guide. This is the best written rio guide for newvie. I'll make sure to print the restaurants list.

BD,

Thanks for a great report. There is a lot of good information in here.

Moodog

Bwana,

Thanks for posting the guide. The info will be helpful to me and no doubt many others.

HC1

Bwana. Awesome. Thanks for this. UWPhoto, DonGringo and I flew to Rio in September and had a hardcopy of your 2002 Bible---er..."guide" for reading on the flight.

GCL - Do you expect us to believe You, DonGringo and UWP know how to read???????? Hemp

Actually we just read the pictures. Problem is we saw everything in double as a result of our Ambien and red wine induced states.

I will never forget sitting there in my seat laughing away, while Deeg sat in UW's lap. Ooops. I guess I shouldnt have told that.