Communicating with home while working in Brazil

Heading to work in Brazil on August 11th and am researching the best route for communicating with my family while gone. Anyone have suggestions on best cellphones, and what not? I have the phone cards that Chouest sells in their crewchange lounge but thinking about other options. Any help from guys that work or have worked there would be great. Thanks!

Don’t know about Chouest boats but if they have decent Internet speeds, and streaming like Skype is allowed, you can make free Skype to Skype voice or video calls or pay for Skype credits (reasonable price) and use it to call regular numbers.

Good internet is key.

Even video chat on Facebook is just about as close to being there as…being there.

Best part - it’s free.

When I was there Skype or face book was the best and cheapest way to talk to the family and friends. Even if the company blocks the site, there are site ninja’s to get around that pesky little problem.

If you have iPhones FaceTime works for me. My internet is as slow as they come but FaceTime works fine for some reason.

Check out the app “viber”. It’s free voice over IP if you can get your smart phone on the ships network.

Edit: I did not create this app.

Do you recommend a specific ninja? I’ve never used one before and are completely unfamiliar with them.

I know a guy that carried a Kindle 3G over there. It worked at the dock for just sending e-mail.

[QUOTE=pogey-poboy;115562]I know a guy that carried a Kindle 3G over there. It worked at the dock for just sending e-mail.[/QUOTE]

Another option is to set up your smart phone as a mobile hotspot for your PC… Works in the US but never tried it out of country.

[QUOTE=“Jetryder223;115574”]

Another option is to set up your smart phone as a mobile hotspot for your PC… Works in the US but never tried it out of country.[/QUOTE]

That could add up really quickly. I think I remember seeing it’s 25 dollars per 100mb

I cannot say about Brazil specifically but I have found locally purchased SIM cards for the iPhone to be pretty cheap in Latin America. Ivan call home of for a month for about $100.

[QUOTE=ForkandBlade;115529]Heading to work in Brazil on August 11th and am researching the best route for communicating with my family while gone. Anyone have suggestions on best cellphones, and what not? I have the phone cards that Chouest sells in their crewchange lounge but thinking about other options. Any help from guys that work or have worked there would be great. Thanks![/QUOTE]

Are you going to Macae city?

Buy a chip in a cell store called “Claro”. It costs around 80 reais (about 40 dollars) and you just have to place it in your unlocked US phone from AT&T or T-mobile. It won’t work if you have Sprint or Verizon. It will give you a Brazilian phone number so your family can reach you anytime. You can also make calls to the US.

Talking about the job, I am moving from South Florida to Houston next month. I want to start a new career in the offshore market (drilling). I recently graduated in Civil Engineering and I speak Portuguese and Spanish fluently. Is there any tip you can give me? Training courses? Entry level positions without experience?

If you need any help in Brazil let me know. I lived there for 10 years and I have friends, love the culture, food. Send me your e-mail if you want.

Thanks!!

I was down there for a while and ended up using my phone. Adds up quick at $2/minute. I had a work around where I bought a data packet from AT&T (International) and was using Skype on my phone for voice calls. Worked ok if I had decent service, but we were usually anchored off the coast where service was iffy.

However, the Kindle was an absolute godsend. The older ones - not the new ones. They have an internet browser in them that allows you to surf - it’s slow - make sure you use mobile sites, but facebook, yahoo, gmail, the news - everything worked great and it’s FREE. We had NO internet onboard at all so that was our connection to home.

A guy I worked with bought one of those phones that was a British number or something and it was $.50 to call home. He said he bought it in the airport on his way down, but I’m sure you can look around.

Google will let you call just about any number for free. I believe the service is called “Google Voice”. Like others have said this is contingent upon reliable internet service…

I bet you can buy a cheap phone at the airport and enough minutes to call home all you want for a month for around $100. I think I paid about 8 cents a minute for calls home from Colombia with a local phone bought at the airport. Phones have to be much cheaper in Latin America or you would not see everyone making $500 per month playing with their phones all the time.

Just buy a foreign SIM card maybe? I have heard if this working well for some people.

[QUOTE=rshrew;115647]Just buy a foreign SIM card maybe? I have heard if this working well for some people.[/QUOTE]

This works as long as you have a quad band phone like an iPhone. The AT&T sims will work in urban areas of most countries but at high Gringo rates

But everything that I have seen in Latin America is local prepaid and the sims have to be recharged or replaced. You also have to get new sims for each country. You can put them in a quad band phone but some sims have to be cut down to fit the iPhone.

We put a WIFI On the Bridge wing and the ECO guys would saddle up fwd and be their bridge wing either on skype or checking sports scores. - I never thought our nework was fast but it was faster than theirs apparently.

I hate Sprint, but used them while working there for three years. I added international Walkie Talkie for $10.00 per phone per month and talked unlimited 24/7 when within cell tower distance. Also used by the Brazileros I worked with so very handy to contact them or technicians…