Good morning. I’ve just woken up upon landing in São Paulo. Overall the nine hour flight from DC was pretty nice. Neither the food nor the service were fantastic but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my plane had been updated to the newer 777, which meant a fully flat bed in business class. I was disciplined and didn’t allow myself to start playing Tetris. I did watch the movie 50/50 while eating and then I slept for six hours until final descent.
I knew upon landing in São Paulo I was going to have to deplane even though the same aircraft was scheduled to take me to Rio. After exiting the plane a United employee directed all Rio passengers to a holding area. He didn’t really tell us anything about the area, so I decided to explore what appeared to be a giant glass cube. It turned out there was a narrow hallway that led to a Duty Free store. By the Duty Free store there was a sign that said there was a club lounge upstairs. It looked like the upstairs could be accessed without doing anything customs related, so I decided to see if the club was associated with the Star-Alliance. Once upstairs I saw there were a few options. One of the clubs was run by TAM airlines and the gold star was on its sign. I decided to try and get in. The lady welcomed me inside but also informed me that there was a United Club around the corner. I only had 15 minutes, so I decided to just stay in the TAM lounge. I enjoyed a Coke Zero, shot off a couple quick emails and made my way back to the gate.
The flight to Rio from São Paulo is ridiculously short. In-air time was something like 28 minutes. Business class had next to no one in it, so I jumped into a window seat and enjoyed the view. I was surprised by how large the city appeared. Dilapidated looking homesteads just seemed to go on and on and on. I was also surprised that even at quite a low altitude (meaning close into the city center) many of the communities were served by one main paved road and then myriad dirt streets. For some reason I had in my head that Rio would be a more industrialized place than it seemed to be from the sky.
Scott had warned me that upon his entry into the country in São Paulo the customs line took 90 minutes. I didn’t have this problem. My plane landed a few minutes early at 1:25 P.M. I was through customs by 1:35 P.M. I then proceeded outside to meet my car that Scott had arranged per my Dad’s last minute freakout about my potential safety in one of the world’s supposedly most dangerous cities.
The ride from the airport to the hotel took only fifteen minutes. My driver seemed very nice but he didn’t really speak English. Scott and I had planned to meet at the hotel. I was worried since I made it to the Sheraton within 50 minutes of when my plane landed that he wouldn’t be there. As luck would have it I ran into him right by the elevators.
After chatting and cleaning up a bit, Scott and I decided that since I was plenty awake enough we would head over to Sugar Loaf. I hadn’t heard of it prior to planning this trip to Rio but I had unknowingly seen it in Hollywood. The tram scene in the James Bond movie Moonraker starring Roger Moore was filmed there.
Scott had been in Rio a few days prior to my arrival, so it was great to jump right in with someone who knew a bit about how to get around. Instead of paying fairly exorbitant taxi fares, Scott learned some bus and van routes. Both the bus and the van are thoroughly entertaining to ride. The way they drive and cram people in is unlike anywhere else I have been. The payment system on the buses is also insane. There is a person that sits one third of the way down the bus with a turnstile. You stop and pay that person, who very slowly makes change and then lets you pass. Once the line of people waiting to pay makes it inside the bus (there always seems to be a line extending out the door at EVERY stop), the driver takes off. A sporadic driving style gets very interesting when every seat is filled and north of 40 people are standing in the bus aisle.
The views at Sugar Loaf really are awesome. To that end I will let the pictures tell the story minus one funny anecdote. Scott likes to take staged candid (I know that’s a paradox) photos. In the photo of him below I counted “one, two, three.” I then laughed and said... “That was stupid. Your back is to me.” He then said, “Even better. I actually smiled.”
We came back from Sugar Loaf, got cleaned up and went out to dinner. We made it to the restaurant, Braseiro da Gavea which is a traditional Brazilian place, around 10pm. We were seated upon arrival but the place was busy, as were all the other places nearby. Evidently 10pm is about when people go to dinner in Rio. Below is what we ate for dinner after being served the equivalent of pretty much the best hot dog I have ever tasted for an appetizer. The meal was called Picanha ao Braseiro. The funky looking dish on the back left was some kind of grain covered bananas that were actually pretty good.
We are now back to the hotel and it’s around 12:30 A.M. After spending the previous 24 hours flying, I am beat but very pleased to have packed a full day’s worth of activities into my arrival day.
Until tomorrow,
Katy
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