Brazil

Sao Paolo, Iguazu Falls & Rio De Janeiro

From October 8th to October 15th, 2022

Day 1

• We landed in Sao Paolo on a Sunday, only to realize that we were one of the only people in the airpot. Turns out Brazilians do not travel much on Sundays.

• Our driver picked us up and took us to Fausano Hotel, where we came to find out that it’s one the nicest (and safest) in Sao Paolo.

• We wanted to stretch our legs a bit, so we walked a short distance to a bar near the hotel that had live music and a lot of locals. We had our first caipirinhas in Brazil at [will look it up].

• They had a strange payment system to us, you picked up a “card” or tab upon entering. Everybody had to have their own card or account number, we could not share. Your server would then charge whatever you ordered to your card, then when you were ready to leave you took your card to the cashier to pay your bill. You were not allowed out of the restaurant without showing proof of payment. Nobody spoke English.

• We went to dinner at Evvai in the Pinheiros neighborhood, which has one Michelin star. The hospitality crew was amazing.

Day 2

• The next morning we woke up craving sushi, so we found a great spot near the hotel called Nakka. There were many Japonese inside, so we knew we had picked a good spot. The staff was very helpful, but did not speak much English at all.

• We wanted to walk lunch off, so we took an Uber ride over to Ibirapuera Park where we could walk around. It was fun to see locals getting out and being active in the park. We came across soccer players, people larping, teenagers biking, kids running around, basketball being played, volleyball, and so on. We did receive some longer stares from certain groups of people, so we always kept moving and didn’t stay in 1 place for too long. It did start to absolutely downpour rain, so we found ourselves running to find shelter before hopping in an Uber back to the hotel.

• Perhaps the reason we even came to Sao Paolo was for our next stop at Tan Tan Noodle Bar. We went right when it opened and it was easy to see why it gets such great reviews. The bar is set up nicely, the drinks were out of this world, and their bar snacks were also world class. We had a great time.

• We hesitantly left Tan Tan Noodle bar to head to our dinner reservations at Brazilian steakhouse called Barbacoa. We had such great care taken of us in this restaurant and you could tell that many people go there to eat and drink all night. Hailey learned that her favorite cut of meat is the rumpsteak, also known as picanha.

Day 3

• The next day we had an excursion to go out and see Iguazu Falls. We packed our bags and took a flight out.

• We checked in at the only hotel (on the Brazilian side) that’s in the national park: Belmond Hotel Das Cataratas

• The great thing about the hotel, aside from being absolutely flawless and beautiful, was that we could walk around the falls after the park had closed to the public. We took a stroll around the park as often as we could while we had it to ourselves.

• All meals were had at the hotel lunch hall and dining hall. There was a billiards room with a cocktail bar and we spent a lot of time relaxing between it all.

Day 4

• We took it rather slow this day, we were loving the hotel and our hotel room. We took a guided tour through the jungle areas of the park, and decided to hop on a boat to get drenched by the falls themselves.

Day 5

• The next day we were back out, traveling to Rio de Janeiro. We checked into our hotel, Belmond Copacabana Palace.

• We took a recommendation from the hotel on where to have dinner, and it might be the best food recommendation we had while in all of Brazil. We took a car about 30 minutes (because of traffic) northwest to the Botanic Garden neighborhood and ate at Sud, o passaro verde ran by chef Roberta Sudbrack. The restaurant feels like it’s an actual house that you’re in, and it doesn’t even look like a street that a restaurant would be on. Chef Sudbrack is allegedly the best and most well known chef in Brazil, and the food had no doubt about it. Order everything, but especially the famous dessert!

Day 6

• We woke up in the morning and took a leisurely walk outside, walking from Copacabana Beach south to Ipanema Beach. We got a great feel for how the locals like to enjoy themselves at the beach and saw all kinds of creative activities people partake in.

• We took it easy the rest of the day getting massages and spending time at the pool.

• We finished the day with dinner at the sushi restaurant at the hotel called Mee. It was incredible.

Day 7

• We woke up the next day ready for a tour around Rio de Janeiro with a guide. Our first stop was at Christ the Redeemer. We had tickets to enter around 11, but traffic was so bad that we didn’t make it in time. We had a difficult time explaining the situation with the attraction team, so after 1-2 hours of waiting and no end in sight, we didn’t actually make it to the top. We decided to call it quits and head to lunch closer to town at Posì Mozza Bar e Mare.

• Our guide took us out to Sugarloaf Mountain and helped us get situated correctly there. It’s extremely helpful having a Portuguese speaker with you in Brazil; they weren’t really interested in hearing our English or Hailey’s Spanish.

• For dinner we decided to go with another local recommendation from the hotel. Grado ended up being in the same neighborhood as Sud, which was cool. They served us Italian food and it hit the spot.

Day 9

• The next day we picked to eat at Lillia, in downtown Rio because the Michelin guide recommended it. We went right when they opened so that we could make sure we secured a spot, and the place filled out quickly. You can tell that the Brazilians that work in downtown come here to eat on their lunch break. This was the best lunch spot we ate at in all of Brazil.

• We finished up dinner and headed to the airport to take a helicopter ride over Rio. The weather was not as sunny for what we had hoped, so we didn’t get to take it around Christ The Redeemer. We did, however, get to explore the expansive beachline outside of Rio heading south. We flew around (not over) Rochina, the largest favela in South America, which houses almost 1 million people.

• We had a special chef’s dinner at Cipriani inside the Belmond hotel and we actually sat in the restaurant while we watched the culinary team create their food art. We got to spend time with the chef learning about the dishes and where she had gotten her passion for cooking.

• The last stop of the day was to go samba dancing at Rio Scenarium. The neighborhood may have been a little suspect, but once we were inside it was great to see the live music, the lively samba danvers, and explore the massive building that housed all kinds of interesting rooms with different types of music.

Day 10

• Left for Panama… but as we were boarding our flight we ran into a snag. Neither Max or I had proof of a Yellow Fever vaccine, but it is required if you are flying from Brazil to Panama. (Mostly because Brazil is a Yellow Fever prone Country). Quick on his feet, Max booked us a “connecting” flight to Mexico City so that we could still board the plane to leave Rio, but couldn’t stay in Panama.

Next time we visit, we plan to check out:

• Buzios

• Fernando de Noronha - we hear this is where the brazilians go for vacation