Brazil - Sao Paulo & Rio de Janeiro
4 Days in Brazil
From September 9 to September 12, 2019, we traveled to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Monday, September 9, 2019
Day 1: We finally landed in Sao Paulo after 17 hours of flying. We headed towards customs and it took us about 45-60 minutes to go through it. We took an Uber to my cousin’s place which took an hour and a half. We relaxed, took a shower, ate some breakfast, and waited for my cousin’s friend, Keita, to pick us up. The first place we went to was the Municipal Market. It was huge with so many fruit vendors that let you try their fruits for FREE! one of Keita’s friends, Pilar, joined us and we had mortadella sandwiches for lunch. After that, we headed to Beco Do Batman, the ally of graffitied art. Then Keita brought us back to our home base and we rested a little more. For dinner, we headed to Churrascaria Vento Haragano, a Brazilian steakhouse where they cut your meat for you right onto your plate and they even had a buffet! There was so much food and we were so stuffed after. We headed back to our homebase and to make the most of our time in Brazil, we caught an overnight bus at 12:06am to Rio de Janeiro!
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Day 2: We arrived in Rio de Janeiro at about 5:45am and caught a taxi to eat breakfast at this Italian place called Galeto 183. We caught an Uber to meet up with our tour at the Hilton Copacabana. The tour (GetYourGuide) took us to the Christ Redeemer statue, where I lost our tickets to get out…don’t do that because you have to pay for another ticket to get out. We also visited the place where the Mardi Gras was held, the stadium where futbol games are played, the Cathedral Metropolitana De Sao Sebastiao, and walked up the stairs of Selaron. For lunch, we went to another buffet and after lunch headed to Sugarloaf Mountain. There were such beautiful views of the city from up there. After the tour was done, we headed to a brew tour with a guy named Isaac from Brazil. We went to three different bars and had a few different beers at each one. He taught us how beer was made and the difference between lagers and ales. We ended up at a bar called Hocus Pocus which is also a brewery in Rio. After hanging out for a little while, we took an Uber back to the bus station. This time heading back to Sao Paulo, we had seats that were could lay flat and go to sleep.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Day 3: Today was a lazy and relaxing day for us. The bus arrived back in Sao Paulo at around 6 in the morning. We caught an Uber back to our home base, took a shower, and ended up sleeping until almost 2pm. We were probably still a little jetlagged. When we woke up, my cousin’s housemaid made us some traditional Brazilian food. There was a kale dish, a bean dish called tutu, farofa, some kind of pork dish, and rice. Everything was so delicious. After we ate lunch, we headed to one of the closest malls to us called Shopping Patio Paulista. We bought a few things to bring back home and then we met up with Keita and some of his English speaking friends. We met at a hostel and had a few drinks and later went to a bar to have more drinks and speak English. We were having so much fun and returned to our home base at around 2:30am!
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Day 4: Today was our last full day in Sao Paulo. We woke up at around 9:30am and walked around. We went through a little side street market but didn’t buy anything because it was more like fruits, vegetables, and meats. We then headed to Paulista Avenue. We walked all around looking for the bookstore, We finally found it after walking for maybe an hour and a half. We kept stopping because the GPS told us we had arrived. Later, we found out that Livraria Cultura means ANY bookstore. The one we ended up going to, most of the books were in Portuguese. We went back to our home base, did some laundry, and had lunch with my cousin’s husband at this Italian place. He wanted to bring us to a traditional Brazilian place, but it was only open for dinner. Before heading back home, we stopped at the post office for me! Then, we went back home to pack, ordered pizza and beer from Uber Eats, and slept early for our early flight the next morning.
Friday, September 13, 2019
We woke up early to go to the airport at 3:00am. Our flight from Sao Paulo to Lima was at 5:30am! Until next time Brazil!