Surviving São Paulo's Public Transportation

São Paulo, the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, can be very overwhelming especially when one has to figure out how to get from one region to another. Luckily, the city has a pretty good public transportation system that is usually reliable and efficient. However, if you don't have a basic understanding of how it works or what the unspoken rules/tips are for taking public transportation, the task can seem daunting. Being seasoned public transportation users, we have decided to let you in on the secrets and tricks that make using this megalopolis' public transit a breeze.

5 Reasons Why you should go to San Diego's Brazilian Day

With an average of over 60,000 attendees per year, the Brazilian community of San Diego hosts what they call Brazilian Day on Garnet Avenue in the Pacific Beach neighborhood this Sunday, September 7th, 2014. A day full of delicious Brazilian foods and drinks, samba, capoeira, music, and more; Brazilian Day is an exciting way to learn about Brazilian culture and even practice a little Portuguese without ever leaving California.

Neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, and it's different neighborhoods, have it all from beaches and rain forests to skyscrapers and historic buildings; making it both beautiful and versatile.

Renaissance by Marriott São Paulo Review

The best hotel we have stayed at in Brazil to date, the Renaissance by Marriott São Paulo is tucked away on a small, quiet street right in the heart of the city. Featuring luxury hotel rooms, a top-rated spa, multiple restaurants, and a theatre, the Renaissance Hotel has it all. To make it even more desirable to those visiting São Paulo, it is located only 1 block away from the bustling, and tourist friendly, Avenida Paulista.

Touring Rio de Janeiro with Rio de Janeiro Now

With so many tour companies popping up all the time in Brazil's main tourist destinations, it's sometimes hard to know which are reliable and worth the money. Having taken two tours with Rio de Janeiro Now tour company, we can honestly say that it is one of the best ways to see all of the main attractions in the city on a budget.

Touring the Amazon Rainforest with Amazon Backpackers

When most people think of Brazil, the first things to come to mind are jungles, monkeys, and indigenous tribes like those shown on National Geographic. Although there are many modern and large metropolis' along the coastlines of Brazil, the majority of the interior of the country remains as just one part of the world's largest tropical rainforest. For those of you with an adventurous spirit and a love of nature, an obvious trip to take while in Brazil would be one to this amazing natural reserve.

Getting a Brazilian Visa in Buenos Aires

During my recent trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, my main objective was to get a new tourist visa for Brazil as my student visa was about to expire. Now, getting a Brazilian visa is not as easy as just paying a fee when you land in the country (for those with a USA, Australia, or New Zealand passport). It takes time, organization, and money but it's doable and normally a fairly quick and painless process.

Campos do Jordão, São Paulo's Top Spot for Winter Retreats

This past weekend we took a short road trip to the interior of the state of São Paulo to a city called Campos do Jordão. This quaint little town is the highest city in Brazil at 5,378 ft or 1,639.2 meters. Modeled after German and Swiss villages, Campos do Jordão is the ideal choice getaway for romance or winter travels and it's not hard to see why.

Dom Alfredo José Pousada, Campos do Jordão Review

A small bed and breakfast located above the city, the Dom Alfredo Jose Pousada is a hidden gem perfect for any romantic getaway. Located just a short drive from the city center, the Dom Alfredo Jose is the perfect choice for those who don't want the noise or the high prices that come with being in the city center.

Lack of Posting

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack in posts recently! Here are some updates on our lives and some travel plans we have coming up:

As far as life updates go, we got ENGAGED in Campos do Jordao, Brazil 3 weeks or so ago!! We are both so excited and enjoying this new step in our relationship and our lives.

Coming up in April, I'm going back to the US for a little bit of wedding planning, visiting with family, and hopefully some more travel! With school and everything that is going on, it has been hard to find the time to do any big trips but that being said, we will still keep posting as much as we can even if it's about places we've been in the past, places on our go to list, or any small adventures we may have in the next few weeks.

Keep checking back for more! Hopefully some of our trip to Campos do Jordao will be up by the end of this week. If there's anything else you would love to see on our blog let us know in the comments, we would love to hear from you!

xo
Jessica

Basic Portuguese for World Cup 2014

World Cup is coming up in 3 months and the anxiety for the big event here in Brazil is rising. Although most hotel receptionists will speak a language other than Portuguese (English most commonly), the common person on the street will most likely be very limited in their ability to communicate in or understand a language other than their own. Therefore, we have decided to make a short post of the basics of Brazilian Portuguese for getting around in Brazil.

xo Jessica and Luiz

5 Weekend Trips from São Paulo

With the end of Brazil's main season to travel coming up, we're starting to think about some upcoming weekend trips that we can take now that the prices are back down to being reasonable. With Luiz's work schedule, all we have are weekends for traveling, so we have decided to make a list of places to share with you that are close enough to São Paulo that they can be traveled to and enjoyed in only a weekend.

(wingwire.com)

xo Jessica

Facebook!

Hello everyone!

We're on facebook! We thought that, that would be a cool thing to do so that people could talk with us, make recommendations, see what we're up to during the time that we're not traveling, and so that it's easier to see when there are new posts!

If you're interested in liking us on facebook click here!

xo Jessica

Transamerica International Prime Hotel São Paulo

Over this past holiday weekend (November 15-17), Luiz finally got to enjoy his first 3 day weekend without work since May. In honor of this, and hitting the milestone of 2.5 years in our relationship, we headed to São Paulo to enjoy the city and get away for the weekend.

Hotel Mercedes

In honor of "throw back Thursday" we wanted to post our review and some information about one of our favorite hotels with maybe more throwback Thursday posts to come in the following weeks to highlight some more hotel or excursion reviews from past trips.

Today we want to highlight the Hotel Mercedes in Ilhabela, Brazil.

(Taken with iPhone 5 in the rain)

xo Jessica

Amazon Rainforest

Hello everyone!

The Amazon Rainforest post is up! Although not completely done yet since I have to go run some errands, I will be finishing it hopefully sometime tonight or tomorrow! I definitely will be adding some important travel tips to that one later.
Looking through all of these pictures to decide which ones to post make me really miss that trip and want to go back!

xo Jessica

Museu do Futebol-São Paulo

Hello World!

Last week I went to the Museu do Futebol with some of my friends from school after class (Luiz was working, unfortunately) and it was really cool so I thought I would share a bit about it here.

xo Jessica

Ilhabela and Paraty

Hello World!

Ilhabela and Paraty are now up! Next to be posted will be the Amazon Rainforest (which was a solo trip for me since Luiz was working) and some more places in the USA!
It is so exciting to log on everyday and see more and more people checking out our blog so thank you all so much!

xo Jessica

Pictures!

Hey internet!

Some of our pictures are up for California and Michigan! Although there is still so much more to write about everywhere we've been so far we're currently working on getting just the basics down for each location before getting into more details! To all of you reading this, thanks! We get so excited logging on everyday and seeing all of the page views and where everyone is from!

xo Jessica

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP 2013

Hello internet!

 This will be my first post on our blog so I decide to start with the "right feet" as we say here in Brazil. Starting with the right feet means that we start something right, start something in a good way, so nothing better than starting with the day we went to watch the 6 hours of São Paulo endurance race. Well yeah, for those who don`t know yet I`m a huge car enthusiast and have been ever since I can remember, so that day was without questioning special for me!