We arrived in Sao Paulo at about 8pm. Their time is 1 hour ahead of Orlando, since they are furthur east than us. I didn't realize until this trip that even Panama is further east than I thought and is in the same time zone as Orlando too. I used to think they were more in line with California, but if you look at a map, central america goes farther east the more south you travel.

I exchanged some money at the airport. I didn't realize until later that they changed me about R$ 10. I wish I knew that, because if I used an ATM i would have just been charged only a $4 service fee. When I was in Peru I wasn't charged any service fees, which threw me off here.

We got through customs ok. They asked the usual questions like where we were planning to visit. When we got our luggage, it was sitting on the floor next to the carousel. We think it might have been on another flight that came earlier and they put it there.

We had some guy from the hotel pick us up. He was standing there with our names on a sign as soon as we walked out. He spoke english, which was cool. He drove a Corolla and we spoke about how Brazil is using their new flex technology that uses sugar alcohol instead of gas. I wasn't sure about the conversion in price, since they sell it in liters and then I had to convert the currency too. I noticed the gas stations were selling it for about R$1.80 a liter.

As we drove along the highway, I noticed how much Sao Paulo looked like NY. If I didn't know where I was, I would have thought I was there. Especially the highway reminded me of the one in Astoria where I used to live. The ride lasted atleast 30 mins. The driver mentioned they were taking other people who were here for the wedding too, on a tour of the city tomorrow and there was room if we wanted to go. We said we'd think about it. I asked about the price for the airport ride and it turned out to cost R$120, which was about $60 American. At first it sounded like alot, but I guess the airport was far from the hotel.

The hotels name is the Sonesta. It's rated as a 4 star. I think it's about 15 stories. We were on the 8th floor. The bellhop took our luggage up. I'm never sure about tipping in foreign counties, so I gave him $3 and he didn't seem to expect it, so maybe it's not customary to do so. Our room is nice. It has a digital safe, small fridge, sink and TV. We're paying about R$120 a day, which I think is atleast 1/2 off because we got some deal that Fe's Mom got for us for the wedding.

We settled in and tried calling Kevin and Fe(the bride and groom), but we couldn't get through to them. We weren't sure if we were entering the number correctly and she and I each had to call the hotel receptionist to make sure we were dialing the correct number to get out. The hotel didn't have any instructions written down. After finally figuring out how to dial out and trying for about 1/2 hour on their cell and home number, we just left a message and went to find some dinner.

Before eating, we stopped by mezzanine to check our email. I just sent an email to my parents and sister letting them know we got there safe. I realized I didn't have their phone numbers since I didn't bring my cell phone and I asked them for them. She was making sure the numbers for Fe and Kevin were correct and to check if they left any messages, but she couldn't get onto her aol email and gave up since they were closing. The lady there made us sign a form and then we left for dinner.

We weren't sure where to eat. I think we could have eaten at the hotel restaurant, but we chose to try out a local restaurant. The receptionist told us there were some right around the corner. We were still cautious about walking around, especially at night, from all the reports of crime were heard. We went anyway. There were about 3-4 restaurants right there and we chose a place than looked like a nice sports bar. The waiter brought the menu and we realized the portugese lessons weren't going to help us much here. I guess the waiter figured we only spoke english and called over a coworker who spoke english. He brought over an english menu and said if we needed anything else to ask him. We ended up buying chicken smothered in different types of cheese. It was tasty, but very greasy at the same time. She had a beer and I got a bottled water, being cautious about the tap water since I got sick in Peru from tap water. Toward the end of the meal I got a glass of wine, that was less then average. The waiter actually told me it wasn't good, but the alternative was getting a bottle of wine. The meal cost about $R 40 and we weren't sure about tipping and tried to ask but the waiter didn't seem to understand, so we just left a couple of bucks.

When we got back to the room we just went to sleep.