First Day in South America - Sao Paolo

Everything happened so fast we have not had a chance to tell anyone about this impromptu trip. Basically, we decided Friday we are taking a 3 week South America trip, and BAM ... we are on the red eye flight to Sao Paolo Brazil the coming Wednesday ... you can imagine the last minute arrangements to be made in 4 days in 4 countries, where their native language is not English ... trying to buy domestic flights on Portuguese/Spanish website literally took hours ... Anyway, the hard work is over, we are HERE!

The first part of the post is me rambling on and on since suffering from a lack of zzzzzz, I totally forgot about this fantastic invention called "camera" which can make my blog more interesting (hey, can't blame me, I don't even have a facebook account!) ...

After an uneventful flight from New York to Sao Paolo, we woke up in the last hour of the flight to a beautiful South American landascape, the mountains and terrains were so awesome ... vast oceans and undulating hills and mountains reside side by side, and all the houses resting in between and on them ... it is something to behold indeed ... ok, I shall not say more since no words can describe the view respectfully (and who forgot the camera??? uuurrrghhh ... but hey! that gives me a good reason for hubby to make a return trip *noted*).

We touched down, went through customs in a breeze. Definitely noticed all the pretty young Brazilian ladies at customs, airline counters etc ... think the trip is not going to be too hard on Frank afterall!

Ok, 4 hours layover to take the next flight to Rio de Janeiro, what to do? In a short half hour, we are faced with fact that we are going to have one hell of a time with language, this is gonna be good! Neither of us speak a word of Portuguese, and majority of Brazilians don't speak English at all ... so here comes the international sign/body language into play ... we must be pretty good at it because we got our two steaming cups of cafe con leche, and some ham/cheese panini ... coffee is out of the world (and for people who know me, I am NOT a coffee person). And yes, we still have no photos to show for it ... gimme a break, I am new to all these new-age tools ... photos, blog, facebook, twitter, poking ... geez ... I will get there).

Alright, we are waiting at the gate to board the flight to Rio finally, flight is late (seems usual in South America, no one batted an eyelid), the lady at the counter made an announcement in Portuguese, some people boarded (not many), we figured it was for elderly, children, first class passengers, so we waited some more ... hmm ... feels weird, its been almost 10 minutes since the annoucements, why aren't all these other people boarding?? Don't know exactly what the next annoucement means, but the words "Ashley Koh K S, Tan H S" came over the intercom ... okie, that's us .... great, we were the last to board ... so we learn there can be many flights boarding at the same gate! Well, its helpful if you understand Portuguese ... tip #1.

Its a short 45 minutes flight, this time round, the view was even more awesome! AND I remembered the camera, BUT it is in my bag which is forced to be put in the overhead cabin, and the old guy sitting at the aisle looked so stern, and we are about to land ... forget it (reason #2 to have to make a return trip).

Ok, 3pm, we made it to the Sofitel Rio de Janeiro, awesome view of of the beach and Sugar Mountain! YES YES YES!!! The trip has begin : )