Brazilian comedian Gregorio Duvivier's advice to foreigners ["gringos"] visiting Brazil:
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/colunas/gregorioduviv...
"It's better to wait seated. Everything is atrasado [late], it's like subentendido [implicit] that the person will be atrasada. For a meeting, it's meia hora [half an hour]. For a party, it's two hours. For a stadium, it's one year. For the metrô, it's forever."
Greeting people:
"In Brazil we give two beijinhos [kisses]. Em São Paulo, just one beijinho. If you are em Minas, it's three beijinhos, pra casar. It's a tradition. If you don't give three kisses, you don't marry in Minas. In the other places of Brazil, you can give how much beijinhos you want. In Rio, the beijinho is in the shoulder."
"Never say you are a gringo. Yes, people love gringo money but people also love gringos have money and people are going to charge you more money because you are foreigner. Say you are from Florianópolis. People from Florianópolis look like gringo and they have a strange accent like you. People will believe you are from Florianópolis."
On Brazil's syncretic (hodgepodge) religious beliefs:
"I'm Catholic but I'm also Buddhist and I am son of Oxóssi. How do you say Oxóssi in English? It's the brother of Ogum. You don't know Ogum? They are guerreiros. And my moon is in Áries. Ou seja. Imagine the mess."