Brasil. Part one.

Coming home from vacation is always tough, but I think this homecoming has got to be the absolute toughest I've ever experienced. Brazil was more than I expected. I did not expect to find it so homelike and some place that I will dream about living in for the rest of my life. I guess I should have known better, because even after my trip to Italy last year, I had dreams about moving to Rome. Only now I am in love with a town called Lagoa de Concepcao (Lagoon of the Conception) on an island called Santa Catarina. And I will forever long to be on Jaoquina Beach drinking Caipirinhas...Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself...I need fill you in on the first part of my amazing journey. Here goes..

Day One:
We left Chicago from Midway to get to DC, where we were catching our flight to Brazil. Of course we had to leave Chicago at 9am and our flight to Brazil didn't leave until after 9pm from DC. We ended up wasting some time around DC, had some lunch with my friend Tosh's sister in law. Tosh is gay and his partner's sister lives in DC. Lunch was good, weather in DC was good, nice way to spend the day. We got back to the airport with about three hours to kill, which of course those hours were killed in the bar. Trisha and I got some candy for the crew members so when we got on the plane, they obliged us with a couple of comfy seats in business class. It was kind of lame though, because we had to sit in between two strangers and didn't get to enjoy the experience together. Our friends Rob and Tosh were back in Economy plus and our other travel mate, Andy was up in business with us. After a good meal, a movie, and several glasses of wine, I passed out. Woke up with about 45 minutes until landing in Sao Paolo. From Sao Paolo, we caught a different flight to Rio. We finally got to Rio and got out of customs and all around noon. So, we basically spent 24 hours traveling. Well worth it.

In Rio we stayed at the Hotel Othon California, located straight on the strip of Copacabana. Grabbed a bite to eat and our first Caipirinhas and then booked it to the beach. Spent the day on the beach, having some drinks and enjoying ourselves. It was a little overcast that day but we made the most of it and still stayed out until well after the sun was down. After a quick shower, we tried to find a place to eat and failed miserably. Ended up just getting some appetizers and then going back to the room to pass out because we had a big day the next day. Actually, the boys put Trisha and I to bed, because we had not yet learned our limit with Caipirinhas and we were kind of faced. I'm glad they did because that was one of the only nights of good sleep that we really got. Here is a picture of our group on our way to dinner.


Day Two:
We were able to get a pretty decently priced Tour to see all of Rio in one day...Well at least the important parts. We saw the largest soccer stadium in the world, some of the slums located in the heart of the city, Sugar Loaf mountain, and the Christo. It was a great tour and I'm glad we did it. I got to see a monkey in the wild, swing from a vine, drink beer on top of a mountain and laugh at my friends. We were all pretty exhausted after eight hours in that tour bus though. Grabbed some dinner and then a few drinks and the boys ended up wanting to crash. After Trisha and I missed out on night one, we decided to stay out and do some partying. Met some people at a hut by the beach and ended up chilling at a bonfire with them and eventually saw the sunrise on the copa. Gorgeous. Super neat experience and I'm glad I did it.




Day Three:
I never really got any sleep on night two, so this is more like day two/three....Had some breakfast and then ran out to catch a little bit more ocean time before leaving Rio. Spent about an hour in the sun and waves and then went up the room to pack up my stuff to leave. Trisha was napping. Got our stuff together, grabbed a cheap and easy lunch and then headed to the airport to catch our flight to Florianopolis. We flew on this airline called Gol, which is supposed to be very similar to Southwest. Our flight ended up being super expensive, which sucked, but it was worth it. Got to Floripa in the afternoon and then headed to our hotel, Hotel Faial. Trisha and I went out to walk around while the boys went to rent our car for the next few days. Floripa is a city that is very busy during the day, but dies out quickly at night, except for in the town square, where there lies a very large tree. People just sit around the tree and chill out. That's what we ended up doing for most of the evening. Here are a couple of pictures of the tree, at night and during the day. I'm not sure why the people are walking around the tree, I guess it's for good luck or something.


Anyway, that will conclude part one of the trip...I need to hit the hay now, but I'll finish the rest of the trip tomorrow.