For me and my friend it didnt make much difference. It was a small bar just across the road from our hotel in Rio. We had got ourselves a regular taxi - run by an old boy that used to work at the hotel. His brother owned the bar across the road.

There were maybe 8 people in the bar - Myself and friend, Jose (the taxi driver) with a friend, the owner and 3 local guys that couldnt speak english but tried their best to be friendly. As you drunk a bottle, the empty was left on the bar for counting up when you paid. These were the big 2 pint bottles. It was a long session. When the bar closed there were maybe 30 or 40 bottles along the bar from all 8 of us. The locals were worried about how they would pay. The price had gone up from the equivalent of 8 cents to 9 cents a bottle while we were there. I just threw the guy $5 worth of cruzeiros and told him to take for everyone and keep the change. Next morning, the taxi driver told me that $5 was about a weeks wage for the locals that cleaned the streets etc.