Friday, December 30, 2011

Brazil day 1

so Rachel and i boarded the plane in zone 3. we were assigned seats 3rd from the back in the giant 767. 2 on the window, three in the middle 2 on the other window. Clueless as to where all the people were, we questioned taking a group of three middle seats each. Sure enough moments before they shut the airplane door, a brazilian hopped in and took our idea. Rachel then moved to a group of two seats behind mine and we stole 3 pillows a piece. seriously, there were about 100 people on the plane.

Dinner was served shortly after take off from atlanta and it was quite tastey surprisingly. we had our option of chicken and veggies or cheesey raveoli. we both chose the chicken which came complete with dinner salad, roll, a blondie cookie, and a glass of white wine (for free). Shortly after the meal, we figured out all the movies were free so we laid down across our own two seats and watched a couple movies. I got some good sleep but woke up at 2am to find the guy that took the three seats across from me asking me if i wanted to change spots with him. Gladly, i said 'are you sure' before switching. I then passed out stretched out until 7am when breakfast was served. Rachel fell asleep sitting up leaning against the window.

Breakfast was an english muffin with egg chunk with peppers in it and aslice of cheese, orange juice, and a strawberry yogurt. Shortly after breakfast we landed safely in sao paulo.

Customs were surprisingly quick and simple. must be why a tourist visa is required. the customs agent did not ask any questions, just swiped my passport and visa and off we were to find a bathroom to brush our teeth and change out of our minnesota warm clothes.

we found the ATM (andrea needed it and got 400 reals,rachel exchanged her cash in minnesota) and headed toawrds the airport bus service. 33 reals to get us to the bus station. we bought our tickets at 915 and caught the 930 bus to the bus station. no traffic or anything the expected hour long ride took a measley 25 minutes.

Once we got to the bus station, we looked for the 'mechanical stairs' and all the bus company stations. we found reunitodas, only to find out the non-stop trip to angra was full. “alll full” unsure of how else to get there, the guy—who doesnt speak english-- said 'sao paulo to barra manas to angra. so we bought a ticket for 50 reals to barra manas at 1300. not reall sure what company would get us from there to angra we figured its the best thing we could do. now we just had to waste3 hours in the bus station. rachel grabbed bobs burgers and i grabbed a ham sandwich and we sat in a little food court i kept dosing off and time went very slowly.

after what felt like an eternity, we both took our turns in the bathroom and headed to our terminal. boarded the bus and passed out. about 3 hours into the trip the bus made a 20 minute pit stop and we looked at the map to see where barra manas was in comparison to sao paulo and rio. we werent even sure if the guy was pointing us in the right direction. stupid americans. sure enough, according to the map we were in the right direction. reloaded the bus and about 5km down the road someone stood up and got dropped off in the middle of no where. crap, we didnt know what our stop was going to look like or if we had to just guess or what. luckily a nice gentleman across the aisle spoke un poco ingles and knew what stop we were looking for. he gave us his businesss card and helped us find the bus station we needed. alunzio was his name. after getting our bags from under the bus we quickly found the only bus company still open and luckily they had a bus going to angra at 1800 (it was 1801 and the bus was late) it was a2.5hour drive through the most turn filled mountains and tunnels and of course the bus driver had to take them as fast as he could.

arrived to the bus station at 830, hopped a 20 real cab to mutaro, the place where kelvin teaches kick boxing. the cabbie did not know of the place so he had to ask his cop friends where it was. we found it.

we watched kelvin finish teaching and then we went to the sea shore for japanese/french food. rachel got sushi, i got a shrimp filled crepe. very tasty. now we are at kelvins while he checks in on his ex girlfriend. early morning tomorrow.

ferry at 8am.

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