What cultural etiquette should I know for Rio de Janeiro?

The first thing you'll notice in Rio is how close people stand. Cariocas talk at roughly 30 centimeters apart, about half the distance North Americans keep, and they'll touch your arm while making a point. Don't flinch. Women greet everyone with a single kiss on the right cheek, men and women alike. Men shake hands firmly, often pulling the other person into a half-hug with a back pat. The standard opener is "Oi, tudo bem?" and the reply is always "Tudo bem," even if things are not remotely bem. Brazilians consider it cold if you skip the greeting and go straight to your request, whether you're at a pharmacy in Copacabana or buying a R$8 água de coco from a vendor along the warm, salt-sticky Ipanema boardwalk.

The gesture that trips up the most visitors is the American OK sign, thumb and index finger forming a circle. In Rio, that's the equivalent of the middle finger. Use a thumbs-up instead. It works for everything from "yes please" to "the food was great" at a smoky boteco in Lapa, where the smell of grilled linguiça hangs over the sidewalk tables on weekend nights. The nightlife along Rua do Lavradio runs hot on Fridays and Saturdays, with forró and samba competing from open doorways beneath the Arcos da Lapa aqueduct. But showing up at 9pm means drinking alone. Cariocas rarely appear before 11pm for a proper night out. Punctuality is not a Rio value. If someone says "8 o'clock," they likely mean 8:45 at the earliest. To be fair, this cuts both ways. A dinner reservation at Lasai in Botafogo for 9pm probably means you'll sit down at 9:30.

Most restaurants in Zona Sul add a 10% taxa de serviço to the bill. You'll see it printed at the bottom, sometimes with "sugestão" or "opcional" beside it. Declining is technically allowed but considered poor form unless the service was bad. That 10% is your full tip. No extra expected. At a beach kiosk in Leblon, where a caipirinha costs R$25 to R$35 (about $5-7 USD at the current rate of 5.16 reais per dollar), rounding up to the nearest R$5 is plenty. Hotel porters appreciate R$5-10 per bag. Uber drivers don't expect tips in Rio, though many riders round up by a real or two. Cash still matters at smaller spots around Santa Teresa, the steep hillside neighborhood above Lapa where narrow R$50 notes sometimes get a skeptical look from bartenders.

Rio is overwhelmingly Catholic, but Afro-Brazilian religions have deep roots here. Candomblé and Umbanda trace back to enslaved Africans who arrived through Valongo Wharf, a UNESCO site in the Porto Maravilha district dating to 1811. You'll see despachos left on the damp sand at Copacabana and at crossroads around Centro. These offerings of white flowers, lit candles, and cachaça are not litter. Never kick them, step over them, or push them aside. On New Year's Eve, when roughly 2 million people crowd Copacabana Beach dressed in white, the sand fills with thousands of these offerings to Iemanjá, the ocean goddess, and the thick sweet smell of melting wax mixes with the salt air. The Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, that enormous concrete cone completed in 1979 near Praça XV, requires covered shoulders and knees. The Igreja da Candelária in Centro enforces the same rule. Carioca street dress is casual and Havaianas flip-flops go almost everywhere. Bikini tops and board shorts, however, stay on the beach.

Futebol operates as social currency in Rio. Having an opinion on Flamengo versus Fluminense, or knowing that Maracanã Stadium opened for the 1950 World Cup, tends to open conversations in a Botafogo bar faster than any Portuguese phrasebook. That said, avoid politics and religion as openers with people you've met recently. One thing that surprises visitors is how seriously Brazilians respect priority queues. At banks, pharmacies, and Metrô Rio stations, pregnant women, elderly over 60, and people with disabilities go first. Locals enforce this vocally if someone cuts the line. The ride from Botafogo station to Maracanã takes about 25 minutes on Linha 2, and the queue discipline holds even during 6pm rush hour at Carioca station in Centro. Portuguese is the language here. Never assume Spanish works. Brazilians take that distinction seriously.