Our first 24 hours in South America: kitties and a never ending bus ride (Travel Diaries Day 1)

Oi amigos!

It’s real! It’s happened! We’re in South America! Our adventure has officially begun!!!

After a smooth 10-hour flight from Lisbon to São Paulo, we’ve finally made it to Brazil. It is hard to describe my emotions as we touched land. A chaotic mix of euphoria (the adventure of a lifetime!) and a dash of dread (are we really traveling nonstop for three months in a whole new continent?). Fear however was soon replaced with excitement as we made our way out of the GRU airport and hopped into our Uber to our first night’s stay in Saõ Paulo.

We stayed at a guesthouse not far from the airport, called “Casa dos Gattos”, The reason? KITTIES! Reid mentioned this place while looking for accommodation, and as a proud cat lady, I could only say “book it now”.

Upon arrival, we were promptly greeted by two friendly cats, one of whom made herself very comfortable in our room - exploring, jumping on the bed, and… using a vase as a litter box. At that moment it was time for kitty to get out of the room!

So what are our plans in Saõ Paulo, you ask? Short answer: we’re skipping it. Reid has already been here twice (partying hard during his glorious bachelor days) and we both agreed to head straight to Rio de Janeiro. Our São Paulo stop was purely practical - it was cheaper - and tomorrow, we’ll be hopping on a 6.5-hour bus to Rio.

Now, about that bus ride…

After a quick breakfast and a snack-stock-up mission, we boarded a bus that honestly impressed me. Spacious seats, ample legroom, and a recliner footrest.

So much leg room! Ok, maybe not enough for Reid…

I thought, “Wow, this is going to be a breeze!”

Well… I couldn’t have been more wrong.

This supposedly 6.5 hours ride turned to an interminable 11 hours due to traffic and unplanned stops to random cities in between. To make things worse, the much advertised onboard Wi-Fi wasn’t working, and without international data plans we had to spend the next hours without TikTok or Fantasy Football. Absolute drama.

To entertain ourselves, we turned to killing mosquitoes (I killed 6, Reid killed 2) and laughed at the uncontrollable farts coming from the guy sitting behind us. And I’m not joking! Initially we thought it was a tic, like something he was doing with his mouth, but anytime we heard the fart sound we turned to take a glimpse and he was just chilling, never moving his mouth?? Reid estimates he might have farted over 100 times and I actually have to agree, it’s not an exaggeration!

Okay, okay - we didn’t spend the entire ride swatting bugs and counting farts. We had music and movies downloaded too. And beautiful green sceneries out the window to look at!

Eventually we did get to Rio. And we even made it to our hostel! We’re staying in Copacabana, and the first thing we did as soon as we arrived was head straight to the rooftop terrace for a celebratory drink!