Okay finally here's the blog about BRAZIL!

After a good amount of paperwork and travelling to and from Santiago to get our Brazilian tourist visas we thought we were set. But… a week before we left we got emails saying that our flight from Montevideo to Sáo Paulo had been cancelled, and that we only had a flight to Uruguay. Since we only have local cell phones, we could only call a Pluna office in Chile, which wasn't working. So Austyn and I were frantically emailing random people trying to figure out how to get a new flight. After a few days of back and forth emails, we got our flights figured out and were told we had a direct flight to Sáo Paulo.…. Because the trip started off with flight problems it was only fate that problems would continue, right??

Day 1: Sooo on Friday, June 3rd we set out for our Brazilian Adventures! After about an hour and a half on the plane they turned on the lights and told us to prepare for landing in Montevideo….. um what??? Austyn and I were super confused because we were told the flight was direct and were only given one set of tickets. Other people were staying on the plane so naturally we just figured that we were suppose to stay on too and its end destination was Sáo Paulo. After it filled up again luckily a flight attendant asked us if we were going to Buenos Aires…. At than we quickly grabbed our stuff and got off! With no tickets and no idea where we were supposed to go we wandered around the airport for awhile and then noticed that there was only one flight to Sáo Paulo that night and it was already boarding. So we quickly made our way to that gate and they had both our names on a little, scrap piece of paper and let us on the plane. We are still fairly perplexed as to how they thought we were to know which gate we were supposed to be at……..

At midnight we landed at Guarulhos airport and had to find a shuttle to Congonhas airport, where Georgia was going to pick us up. Austyn and I must have looked like total lost idiots because a man from South Africa came over and asked us if we knew where we were going…. Of course we didn't so he led us to the bus station and even let us borrow his cell phone to let Georgia know we made it. It really made me thankful for all the nice people that are in this world, with just that small amount of information he gave us, we weren't such lost tourists.

I was amazed how different Portuguese is from Spanish. I figured our Spanish vocabulary would be sufficient, but the pronunciation of Portuguese is so completely different. Reading Portuguese is manageable, but when people talk it is completely foreign. So the whole time we were there Austyn and I spoke a mixture of English, Spanish and some Portuguese we learned along the way… Spangluese perhaps?

The two airports are about an hour apart, so we arrived around 1am. I was sooo happy to see Georgia!! We had been planning this trip since I got to Chile and finally I had made it. I still have her address written on a scratch piece of paper that she gave me the day she left Glenwood, and I brought it along with me. We left the bus station and headed to a late night diner in Moema (Georgia's neighborhood) for some food and then to Georgia's apartment because we were pretty exhausted.

Day 2: On Saturday we woke up to Georgia's mom bringing us fresh croissants from the bakery next door. YUM. We finished up our late breakfast and headed out to walk around Moema. There are so many cute restaurants, coffee shops and stores in her neighborhood.

Sáo Paulo is literally HUMUNGOUS; the sky scrapers just never end. I definitely went through some culture shock because Brazil is much more industrialized than Chile. There are things that I forget about that we don't have in Chile and just the city in general is more developed. The amount of wealth in Brazil is astounding also; you are either super rich or super poor. It was pretty shocking how expensive everything was, especially when my bank account dwindled fairly quickly. In Chile I am used to paying USD $1 for a taxi downtown and in Sáo Paulo each cab ride was atleast USD$40. Yikess! After browsing around Moema, we headed to a restaurant for some feijoada, which is pretty much a buffet of rice and beans with different kinds of meats. Feijoada is a typical Brazil dish that has a history that dates back to the sixteenth century when there were a lot of African slaves in the country. As far as I know the slaves ate a lot of beans and rice to eat a heavy meal that would hold off their hunger, soo there came feijoada! Restaurants have like "feijoada days" where they have buffets, usually its Wednesdays and Saturdays.

After a very filing meal we headed to Georgia's friend's apartment that had an incredible view of the city. We had some Busca Vida, Georgia's drink of choice and enjoyed watching the sunset over the city. We then went to another one of Georgia's friends houses for some wine and fondue. We had the option of going to a club for R$240… which is about USD$150….. so at that we opted to not go because at that rate we wouldn't have enough money to make it back home to Chile haha. We ended up hanging out for the majority of the night, listening to music, playing some drums and eating some delicious chocolate and strawberry fondue.

Day 3: Sunday morning was filled with more delicious croissants, and then we headed downtown for some sightseeing. We first stopped at Marcel's house to pick up his newly imported Mustang. When we were leaving his gated neighborhood I noticed that there was a favela (slum) directly next to his house. Semi-jokingly they asked if we wanted to see it and I was pretty intrigued so we drove a little ways up. Marcel assured us we would be fine because his car was bullet proof… yikes? It was incredible to see the contrast between the two social classes. It is a completely different world, right next door.

We went downtown and saw pretty much every car dealership possible; Porsche, Lamborghini ect ect, and then went to the mall. I have never seen so many designer stores in my life. Not quite sure what to say about it.

After the mall we went to one of Marcel's friend's houses to watch a movie and then go out for some Caipirinhas, the national drink of Brazil. I really don't know what kind of alcohol was in them, one was made with sake and you can pretty much get them made with any kind of fruit. We hung out at a karaoke bar for awhile and then headed out for some pizza to end the night.

Day 4: On Monday Georgia had to head to school so Austyn and I took advantage of the morning and slept in until about noon. At one we had lunch with her family, which were so sweet to us. I am so thankful for their hospitality; they made our trip absolutely fantastic (and delicious). Georgia had to work so Austyn and I went downtown to Oscar Freire, which is like the Saks Fifth Avenue of Brazil. We toured more specialty stores and walked around for the afternoon. The first dress I looked at was USD$6000, insane.

We headed back to Georgia's later on to plan our bus trip to Rio de Janeiro. It's a 6 hour bus ride and we were planning on going on Tuesday sometime but after looking at the bus schedule we decided to take the overnight bus so we would have a full day on Tuesday. We headed to the bus station around midnight and were off to RIO!

Day 5: Okay.. so I have to admit, I was terrified to go to Rio. (Mom don't read this : )) Rio frequents the news for problems in the favelas and with drugs; in fact it is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. When I first told my mom that I wanted to go to Brazil back in March, the first thing she asked was if it was anywhere close to Rio. Originally we weren't going to go to Rio because plane tickets were a little expensive to fly there from Sáo Paulo and we weren't sure if the buses were safe. And for 2 blonde (Austyn might as well be blonde… hahaaa) gringa girls, that don't speak Portuguese, don't have any form of cell phone for communication and pretty much had no idea where we were… it didn't seem like the greatest idea. But after talking to my Chilean parents, Georgia and her family, we were reassured that we would be totally fine. The reason that Rio is so dangerous is because there are so many favelas and they are so close to the city. Apparently the police have now started to filtrate into them and are targeting the drug dealers that have take them over the past few decades, but honestly I don't know much about the situation. But we planned everything out pretty well, knew which areas to avoid, brought only things we knew we could live without, and only wore money belts. After 6 hours on the bus we got into Rio at about 7am. We had our hostel send us a taxi so we wouldn't have to find one, but it turned out that we couldn't find it so we quickly jumped into a different one to get out of the bus station. The bus station was out of the city a little ways so it was… well a little sketchy. Our hostel was in Copacabana, and check-in wasn't until noon so we ditched our stuff there and headed to the beach. The main beaches are Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. We ended up walking all along the beach to Leblon and then back through the city. The beaches are amazing, and after arrival I felt totally safe walking around. I knew already that I worry too much and with my mom already pissed off at me for going I was extra cautious. We headed back to the hostel to check-in and plan some tours. We were going to paraglide that day but the wind ended up being too strong so we headed out to see Cristo Redentor, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Rio. We hopped on a bus and then another tour bus to head up the mountain to see Jesus! The view from the top was incredible. It overlooked all of Rio, the lagoon and the ocean. After a zillion photos we headed back to the hostel for some dinner of yogurt and granola. To be able to afford all the things we wanted to do we survived off a 2 pound bag of granola…. Hahahaahaha.

Day 6: At 7 am the next morning we headed to Angra Dos Reis, which is in the southern part of Rio. It's composed of many different islands, all of which are owned by the richest people in Brazil and other people from all over the world. After a 2 hour bus ride we boarded our boat for the day. We first went to a beautiful beach and were let off to explore, swim, do whatever. The water was surprisingly warm and the beach was incredible. White sandy beaches, palm trees, crystal clear water… Caipirinhas…. It was the most unbelievable place. After some exploring and almost missing the boat, we headed off to a spot for some snorkeling. If you know anything about me… fish are not my favorite thing. I know, I know, it is a very irrational fear. So snorkeling was going to be a little of a challenge for me. With peer pressure from Austyn I downed my Caipirinha, and with a little liquid courage dived in. Of course everyone on the boat thought it would be a hilarious joke to throw bread and lettuce in the water so that all the fish feasted, right next to me. As I started screaming and hyperventilating this only drew more attention to me and increased everyone else's entertainment. It was a great 30 minutes of sheer panic….. But the bread eventually ran out and I ended up swimming around the whole time. Conquering fears, haha. The last place we visited was another gorgeous beach, apparently were a really famous Brazilian singer made a music video. We wandered around the island for awhile, took more photos and soaked up the sun. Upon boarding for the last time we were served fresh pineapple and watermelon, perfect way to end the trip. We headed back to shore around 4pm, took the 2 hour bus ride, and arrived back at the hostel just in time for some more dinner of granola.

Having a full day tour and getting up so early we were both totally exhausted, but lucky for us some old man had checked into our 12 person hostel room that day. My head had just hit my pillow when I heard the most awful sound. I swear it sounded as if the man was dying; I have never heard snoring of this kind. Austyn immediately pops her head down from above me and we both started laughing hysterically. I decided to just turn up my music on my Ipod to drown out the sounds, but at maximum volume I was still unable to escape the noise. This continued for the next 3 hours and finally at 2am Austyn and I decided to start making a bunch of noise to see if he would wake up and roll over, after slamming doors and closets we had no luck. I ended up hitting his feet with my flip-flops… still no luck. So………..no one in the whole room got any sleep that night.

Day 7 (or day 3 in Rio): After a sleepless night we had some breakfast and called the guy to see if the wind permitted us to paraglide. Austyn and I had seen the trailer for the movie Rio a few days prior to our trip which was where we got the idea to go paragliding. An hour later we were picked up and headed up the mountain. There were other tourists up there as well, and their instructors were doing test runs, explaining the equipment and the proper techniques to take off and land… but our guide literally strapped me in and told me to run…. So, 1….2…3… later I was flying high in the sky! It was incredible! We flew over a favela which was really interesting and then went way out over the ocean, which was a little terrifying. After about 15 minutes in the air we flew over the beach and landed. After Austyn came down we were dropped back off at the hostel and then headed back out to wander around Ipanema and Leblon. In the late afternoon it started raining so we took a break from exploring and settled in a small coffee and ice cream shop to get out of the rain. We had until late that night when our bus left so we had some delicious hot chocolate and enjoyed the view of the beach. We headed back to the bus station around 10pm, which made for an arrival in Sáo Paulo at 4am. Half asleep we grabbed another USD$50 taxi back to Georgia's house.

Day 8: Friday afternoon we met up with Georgia after she turned in her final work for the semester for some lunch at a restaurant next to Ibirapuera Parque. This is like the Central Park of Sáo Paulo and is filled with beautiful trees, lakes, fountains and museums. After lunch we headed to the park to spend the afternoon wandering. After a couple of hours we headed back to Moema to meet up with Georgia and Marcel to head to Marcel's beach apartment for the weekend. His apartment is about an hour and a half out of the city.

Day 9: After some breakfast we walked the whole 5 steps to the beach to soak up some sun! The apartment was literally on the beach, looking over the whole ocean. We lounged around all afternoon and I even saw my first jellyfish! It was dead and washed up on shore, but it still counts. After hours of the beach, pool and sauna we headed upstairs for some cheese and chocolate fondue. We spent the night relaxing in the apartment, watching some movies and drinking wine.

Day 10: We all woke up pretty early and had some breakfast before heading to the docks to take Marcel's yacht out for the day. We toured around the area and then ended up on some super fancy beach with enormous houses. I really have no idea where we were but we anchored next to what I could guarantee were million dollar yachts and spent the day laying out on the boat. I think we all dozed off under the luscious Brazilian sun. On the way back to the docks we stopped at a restaurant on the water for some seafood appetizers. That night we headed back to Sáo Paulo but there was an accident so we ended up spending 2 hours waiting and getting back pretty late.

Day 11: What we thought was our last day in the city, we finished up some packing and grabbed a few last minute gifts for the Albuquerque family. We knew that there had been a volcanic eruption in southern Chile, but we had checked with Pluna that morning to make sure our flights were still confirmed. So after some sad goodbyes we headed for the airport. Upon arrival we were told that our flight had been delayed, were given lunch vouchers and were told to return in 3 hours for a new flight on LAN Airways. The problem with our flight was that Pluna doesn't fly direct to Santiago; they go through Montevideo, Uruguay. Due to the eruption and volcanic ash in the air, all flights out of Montevideo had been cancelled. So Pluna was re-routing us to fly LAN because they flew direct to Chile. After some free lunch we came back to the Pluna desks and were met with a huge line of passengers. With no idea what was going on we stood in line for a good hour and a half and then finally we realized they were giving out hotel vouchers. We quickly realized that we weren't going anywhere anytime soon. An hour later we were given our vouchers and were told that they would contact our hotel when they had an available flight. So we headed to the hotel with no idea when we would make it out of Brazil. At that time the volcanic eruption had occurred 9 days prior, so we were pretty skeptical as to when we would actually depart. The hotel they put us up in was super swanky. After settling into our hotel room we headed down to the restaurant for some dinner. Austyn and I felt pretty out of place with our Pj's on at dinner, when everyone else looked like they were on their way to an important business meeting. We indulged, to say the least. We spent over an hour sipping orange juice out of wine glasses and eating what was probably pounds of flan.

Day 12 (Day 2 of being stranded in Brazil): After spending the majority of the day at the gym, pool, and sauna we started to wonder what was going on with our flight. We asked the hotel numerous times what was happening, but they never had any useful information. They told us they would let us know in plenty of time when we had to head to the airport. Sooooo we spent the whole day relaxing. That night, we got a phone call from the front desk saying that our flight was in 25 minutes, so much for the telling us in plenty of time right? So we both quickly thru our stuff back in our suitcases and headed to the airport. After waiting for another hour at the desk, we were informed that we technically didn't even have a flight. We had the option of flying to Montevideo tonight, spending the night and afternoon in the airport and leaving from Montevideo at 1pm the next day. Or we could go back to the hotel for the night and take a flight the next day at 9am to Montevideo, and then the 1pm flight to Santiago. I don't know why anyone in their right mind would opt to spend the night in the airport versus a hotel, so we obviously headed back to the hotel for the night. Thanks again Pluna for making any sense.

Day 13 (day 3 stranded in Brazil): At 7am the next morning we yet again headed to the airport. After 2 nights and 5 meals each at the hotel, our bill was almost a grand, thanks Pluna! Of course, when we got there we were immediately told that our flight was already delayed until noon. So with 4 hours to kill, Austyn and I headed to the gate, wrapped ourselves in what clothes we had and rested our heads on our backpacks to catch a few zzz's. Noon rolled around and then we realized that the flight was still delayed… soooo we ended up waiting until 2pm to get on the plane. Finally getting into Montevideo we had a quick second to grab some snacks and then boarded our plane to Santiago. After 16 hours of travel, 2 plane rides, 2 buses and a taxi… we finally made it back to Viña, late on Wednesday night. It was a total nightmare, especially because that whole day I was sick; I think from the hotel water. I have never been so happy to have gotten home. Okay it is about time to wrap this blog up; it has taken me like 3 days to write. I don't think it's necessary to explain once again how amazing Brazil was. Even though it was a total disaster getting home, it was easily the best vacation of my life. I have to say I am pretty proud that the two of us actually went to Rio and didn't actually get murdered. Haha, but seriously, we figured it all out and that kinda feels good. My tourist visa is good for 10 years, so I feel another trip to Brazil will be a must. Thanks again to the Albuquerque family for making our trip so fabulous!!!