First time Traveling to Brazil with a Baby Pt.1

Our vacation took place around December 2015, surprisingly that's summer in Brazil!

sugarloaf mountatin

I guess, since it's little bit hard for me to remember, I'll just write in a chronological type style entry.
-short-term memory, mommy brain and procrastination-

To start, I read a few posts like, On the go with Baby in Brazil and Traveling to Brazil with Baby
I've also looked at a bunch of sites to see what I should pack traveling with a baby.
So.... overall, we were not that worried. I will write a separate post about preparations/lists.
It's just overwhelming because I do not like riding airplanes and I have never been to Brazil.
We were really lucky for our flight to Brazil because they gave us a empty seat between us.
This is how we found out that even if American Airline tells you that bassinets are first come, first serve AND we arrive 5 hours earlier.. It all doesn't matter if someone purchases the bulkhead seats. Then the bassinets are not available. Customer service and their website needs to update.
Like, seriously? You are not going to tell us this beforehand?

The only good part is that my husband is Brazilian and we won't be targeted as tourists and we're not that flashy for an Asian. I know this sounds stereotypical, but Koreans in Los Angeles for the most part, are in fact, quite flashy. I mean, I go to our neighborhood park and I'm the only Korean mom in sweats and a stretched out t-shirt. And this scenario is more compact in Sao Paulo, the Koreans here are known to be money makers and handle large amounts of cash from Bom Retiro district. Anyways, back on point. We were not worried at all about crime. It's not just because of common sense, it's also because the probability of us being affected by crime is so low, 1. We have a baby, so that means 2. we probably won't be going to clubs or going out late at night and 3. it's just basic street smarts. You wouldn't walk around unfamiliar grounds in la, would you? like warehouse district or anywhere secluded. Lastly, the crackheads. Eh... not too different from downtown. Don't be intimidated. Major tourists spots have military police patrolling the area as well. Usually the transients mean no harm but they always "offer" services to watch your car for a small fee and kind of threaten you with a smile. They always end their sentence with "....make sure nothing happens to your car". My husband gets annoyed because it's a regular parking spot and these transients don't own the property but they are everywhere, patrolling the neighborhood for street parking visitors.

Arrival

Once we landed, I quickly realized Brazil is a whole different world. Brazilians in the hospitality/service field are so friendly that I was feeling a bit uncomfortable by it. There is no restaurant in Sao Paulo where a server isn't at every whim, I mean, they are refiling, they are sweeping crumbs off the table and taking away straw wrappers without having us to even think about it. I know some other cities are more laid back though (from what I hear). Where I felt the most envious about traveling in this country, was at all place of service, there is a priority line for seniors, young children, pregnant woman and handicapped. Why don't we have this? Is it too much for us to handle? The GRU airport, we breezed through with our 7 month old child; even the neighborhood market has a dedicated checkout lane for this category. I mean WOW, I will never forget.
Also, almost everyone in the service field speaks basic English so I did not have to depend on my husband all the time. We got our rental car and everything was going smoothly until we kind of got lost going to our destination. *TIP: get data service right away, even with a native-the paper map was not doing us any good once we got into the wrong street.

The first day, we took the time to recover and get settled. The whole family got together to go eat at local churrascaria (and so it began... meat, lots of meat) We checked out the local mall and the park as well. We mostly stay inside Aclimacao neighborhood the first day since that's we were staying. We stayed at the Blue Tree Premium Paulista, which was very nice and affordable for us. Breakfast is included and they even have some Japanese dishes. We didn't worry too much about Flora's food since at this stage, she ate mostly rice cereal and pureed foods.

bouquet vending machine inside the mall

birds resting at Aclimacao park

After a quick city tour, we went a beach city called Ilhabela and rented a airbnb with my husband's childhood friends. We drove a few hours to take a car ferry in São Sebastião, (it takes a few hours because in Brazil, the speed limit is very low). From there, the ferry took us to the beautiful, beachy island town of  Ilhabela. Of course! Even the car ferry has a priority line!!!!!! I LOVE IT!

view from top of car ferry.

at the beach house rental

Ilhabela beach

I liked how my husband shared that this was what he missed the most. Being able to go somewhere with his friends to relax and not worry about anything like the old days. This is what they did as young adults, go somewhere together, lay out by the beach, drink, surf and hang out.
The water was warm, air breezy and we had cheese on a stick! Cheese on a stick is a popular snack on the streets and the beaches, it may not be the most sanitary (I've seen vendors just stack them on dirty tables and put skewers through them) but who cares, it's roasted on fire and it's so good! Just don't eat if you have a weak stomach and are prone to food poisoning. I realized why my friends always complain about my photo taking skills, as I'm writing this blog I have no pictures of the cheese sticks or what not. I never take enough food pictures... I'm really going to miss brazilian stuff like a liquidy cream cheese spread and the cheese sticks.. and the padarias.. and so on.

view from sugarloaf

I think we miscalculated a bit because we didn't realize the time spent driving will be this long. My husband was out of the country for almost ten years and the lower speed limit is a fairly new thing along with the many speed cameras (one on every mile almost). So taking the the ferry back Sao Sebastiao, we drove to Rio and it was almost a 5 hour drive. By the time we checked into our hotel, it was late and our flight back to Sao Paulo was the morning after the next. My husband was getting upset because we came all the way to Rio and had no energy or plans. All the hotel tours were being offered at the break of dawn and it seemed too much for us with a baby. Luckily, we just said F-it let's go to sugarloaf and see what happens, we don't have to visit 2 sites in one day (the other one was Christ statue). We found parking, we passed everyone with priority, next thing we know- we were on top of sugarloaf mountain looking at cristo redentor! After that, we decided to take a stroll down the beach and (for me) bad mistake because I can't stand the heat or the glaring sun. Our stroller was covered with a muslin and we had a portable fan for our baby. But it was just too darn hot for me that I was on the verge of getting heat exhaustion.

Both babies K.O.

That evening, we went to a bar to meet up my husband's friend, Caeser (Brazilian bars are very family friendly btw) they are usually accommodating and the tables move around to make space as well. It's a very relaxed atmosphere to be in, people don't really mind you have your child with you and you see older children just hanging out and eating dinner while their parents are having a beer.
The next day, we returned our car to Rio airport and took a flight back to Sao Paulo. We though it would be easier to take a  two hour flight but realized its the same amount of time spent (2 hr flight + 2 hrs returning car, boarding, ticketing, check in, etc). My husband regretted returning the car because he got accustomed to driving around and there were no cars available for rent in Sao Paulo due to the holidays. OH, we made the mistake of traveling to Rio without our passports! We left our heavy luggage at the grandmother's house with our paperwork. I asked my husband the day we reached Rio, don't we need passports to take the plane back to Sao Paulo? So my husband had to ask his cousin to mail our passports next day to our hotel. I'm just glad everything worked out.