Off to São Paulo

I've had the following chant stuck in my head for the past few weeks:

I'm super excited to be going to Brazil!

Trip

We took of from San Antonio on the December 13th, connected through Houston. There were a ton of Brazilians on the flight from San Antonio. As it turns out, there was a major breast cancer convention that they flew into town for. We haven't had a chance to look up the convention, but apparently it's a big deal internationally. There were at least a dozen doctors on our flight.

Once in Houston, we grabbed dinner and hung out for the 2+ hour layover. We even let Zoey run around to get some exercise/burn energy!

She made a ton of friends there. The flight to IAH was a sinch. The flight to GRU was a different story. We became those parents. She flipped out about a third the way into the flight when everyone was sleeping, and we couldn't get her to calm down. Jenifer hung out in the rear galley, and the United crew was very nice about it. We're not sure if it was teething or her flipping out waking up in a strange place, so we busted out the liquid Advil in case it was teething, and she calmed down pretty quickly. She was okay the rest of the flight. As parents, we didn't get more than 1-2 hours of sleep. By the way, did you know they pass out infant life vests on those flights?

Arriving in São Paulo

We flew into the new terminal that was built for the World Cup. Everything was nice and new, and very well marked. We went through the visitor side for immigration. The visitor line was significantly shorter than the Brazilian line. I figure with the holidays coming up, tons of folks are flying back into Brazil to be with their families.

We skipped the line on the visitor side since there was Brazilian in our party (the line was only 4 or 5 people, not a huge jump). The guy we talked with at immigration was funny. Zoey and Jenifer both have Brazilian passports, and the guy gave me a lot of crap for not speaking Portugese. He talked soccer, learning language, all social stuff. He was very friendly.

After getting through, we went to pick up our 160 lbs of checked luggage (68 lbs, 52 lbs, and 40 lbs). The number is not an exageration. It was pretty crazy to see all of the things people were bringing from the US. For example, this guy flew a bike over:

Why would someone pay to fly a bike to Brazil? Brazilians and those who are friends with Brazilians know things cost way more in Brazil than they do in the US, and much of the rest of the world.

A most confusing place to drive

A friend of Jenifer's parents drove us around today. The terrain around here is hilly, and everything is green. It's actually quite pretty (less the four maximum security prisons you pass while leaving the airport).

But once you get into São Paulo... I would say: Don't drive here. Seriously. Here are the observations from today:

• No one follows any traffic law. Many red lights run (30+ seconds after it's red), people jumping curbs. Driving where there is no lane.
• Everyone is going to cut you off, and you are going to cut everyone else off. It's policy.
• Do not count on the direction the road is currently heading to be the actual direction it will be going in the next mile or two. A compass is useless in this city.

There are divided roads running through the city, both flowing the same way, and then suddenly, one takes a 90 degree right turn and you're down to one road, that is then again divided with traffic flowing both ways this time. Then suddenly, divided, both sides going the same way. You need a dashcam to appreciate the craziness. On top of that, signs are not very frequent nor are they necessarily helpful.

Hotel

We're staying at the TRYP. The place is simple, the staff is well dressed and courteous. The wifi is terrible, and if you can get connected, it's 64kbps. The wired internet is okay thought, and I brought the ethernet adapter for my Macbook, so we're ok. We won't need to start that pity party just yet.

In our room, nothing electrical worked when we came in. We found out there's a place for the hotel key just when you get in the room that scans the card and turns on all the electricity. If you scan the card, it works for about 10 minutes, if you leave the card in the reader, everything continues to work without that weird timeout.

Also. I've been told don't drink the water here. So we're going to stack up on 1L bottles of water tomorrow.

Lastly, we have to unplug everything whenever we're not using it. Power surges are a real problem here, and they'll fry your gadgets.

Mercadão

TLDR; If you ever end up in São Paulo, go here.

This was one of the spots we wanted to hit. After checking into the hotel, Jenifer wanted to eat at the hotel since it started raining, her parents wanted to go down to the Mercadão to grab a bite and pick some things up. I sided with her parents, and we made the drive. The rain had let up a bit, so it was sprinkling by the time we got there. They put the car in a small "garage" across the street. I say "garage" because it was basically a shop that was converted into parking. There are a few spots like this around the Mercadão.

For the Americans out there, think of the Mercadão like a ton of specialty food shops that are all setup in a massive building. The people at the shops are constantly poking at people passing buy to start a conversation and hopefully business. They seemed to especially love proding Jenifer's dad, and he seemed to like it as well.

I didn't take many photos. Here's one from a shop where Jenifer's parents bought a few things:

If it's food, you can pretty much find it in the Mercadão. There were a ton of fruits, vegetables, and meats available. There were shops selling wine, beer, and liquor as well. The thing that caught me off guard was how much salted fish they sell there. There are tons and tons and tons of the stuff. We even saw guys hand salting the fish to cure it. Additionally, the number of cured meats was insane. It seemed like every other shop had a selection of cured meats. If it can be cured, it's sold there. Lastly, there were a surprisingly large number of places selling a wide assortment of cheeses.

After a stroll around, we ate lunch on the second level of the Mercadão. There are a bunch of places to eat up there, and it was absolutely packed. We had to circle for a few minutes to find a place to sit.

I ordered a sandwich that was made with cured meats (similar to jerky) with olives, sun dried tomatoes, and cheese. The portion sizes would statisfy an American.

That plate is about 10" in diameter, and that's only half the sandwich. It was the salty because of all the cured meats, but it was damn good.

As a friendly warning, if you go to the Mercadão, you will leave smelling like the Mercadão.

End of day

After the late lunch, we came back to the hotel, showered, and took a 4-5 hour nap (even baby). The nap was follwed by some snacking that we'll just call dinner, and back to sleep for the night. I can't wait to see what the next few days have in store for us!