Tourism Suggestions in addition to John's

I do not hate Rio!!!!!...hahaha!!!!

Also, I would suggest some other places, too, for you to enjoy after the wedding:

- Fernando de Noronha: the Brazilian Carib - dolphins, beach and nature
- Looking for some wine tour? Go to Serras Gauchas - good food, wine and where you can visit the Brazilian "Grand canyon"
- Want to fish, caving and to dive in blue lakes? Go to Bonito, in Pantanal!!! It is amazing there!
- Looking for tracking? Take a flight to Brasilia and a bus to Chapada Diamantina!
- Florianopolis: beautiful island city in the south


It is difficult to decide, isn't it??!!!

You will need to get flights for all this options.

For all of them I reaffirm what John said: update your vaccines (including Yellow fever)!!!! Them you will be guaranteed to have just good interactions with nature!

I originally wrote this to my friend Mat, but applies to all you gringos reading this blog. Here's the early version of the planning.

Planned activities will likely start on the 7 March with a feijoada (brazilian meal - think a red beans and rice party, but with black beans) mid-day and a night out at a bar. 8 March there will be some Sao Paulo tourism downtown and then transit at night to the beach. 11 March there will be transit at night back to SP. 12 March there is a churrasco (brazilian BBQ - oh hell yes) at Carol's parents house. 13 March is a dinner between the Wilbanks and Rossini families, followed at night by a luxury bar for fancy cocktails, TBD.  14 March is the wedding.

You gringos are welcome at any and all of this, of course :-) but your presence is...demanded...from the 12 March to the 14 March. If you want to see the rest of the country before or afterwards I think you've have a great time. The beach is also going to be awesome and I know my family will be there and would love to have you along telling bad stories about me.

There's also Rio. Carol, as a paulistana (SP resident), has conflicted emotions about Rio. I think it's a lovely place, great beaches - but very touristy and crimey. But it's worth having on your list as a potential place to go. Or you can fly up to Manaus and check out the Amazon - I've never done that and would love to do so. Salvador on the upper northeast coast is wonderful, Brazil's version of New Orleans, home of my favorite indigenous music and food styles, great beaches. Each of these is a flight away from SP but served by Brazilian national airlines GOL and TAM.

If I were you, I'd show in SP on the 6 March, work the gringo schedule, then go back to the beach after the wedding for a few more days of R&R before you go home. You can stay in a pousada (think fancy motel on the beach) with cable, internet and air conditioning for like $50 a night and get in a bunch more tropical sun time, to go kayaking or surfing or shopping or a mix of all three. Or I would fly up to Salvador at some point and poke around there, buy a ton of forro music and eat nothing but acaraje on the beach while drinking copious amounts of coconut water and pineapple juice.

You should also probably get your vaccinations updated. I'd recommend the whole megillah if you plan to hit the beaches - hepatitis, diptheria/tetanus, tyhpoid, etc - makes it easier to eat all the local foods without fear. 

açaí

Oh, açaí.

This is one of the great things about Brazil, at least, speaking as a Gringo. You've heard about French bread when you go to France. You know that you're going to drink vodka in Russia. 

But Brazil, well...most people think about beaches and teeny weeny bikinis - and those are true - and maybe these days they think about the caipirinha (also true, and to be the subject of another post itself). But Brazil's full of things you have never heard of that are insanely good.

Açaí na tigela is one of those things. It's the fruit of the Açaí Palm, pulped and iced, blended with guarana syrup and other fruits (I like it best with banana) and then topped with granola, condensed sweetened milk, and other fruits. Quoth Farva, it's delicious.

Not only is it delicious, but it's incredibly energizing. Between the caffeine and sugar in the guarana syrup and the natural energy from Açaí it's like eating a bowl of sweet healthy sorbet and getting the benefit of a cup of joe. Good stuff. Only downside is that it makes your teeth look like, well, the stuff inside the bowl.

You've been hearing a lot about Açaí in the States lately. It's packed into all sorts of food products and juices as the magic anti-oxidant, at the low low cost of $5 for 6 oz of juice. You can get it cheaper. If you live in a big city, find the Brazilian neighborhood (there's always one!) and buy yourself the good stuff for $1 a pound frozen. But you'll still need guarana syrup to make the dish the right way...

Are you going to Brazil, aren't you? But remember, "gringos" need a VISA!!!

To enter Brazil, even if only for a few hours, you will need a visa!! And since all of you are going to our weeding, you should start planning to get the visa as soon as possible. There are some costs involve, but they worth it! If you leave in MA and around, check the Consulado Geral do Brazil em Boston.

Samba the night away in lively community centres or sip cocktails with the jetset in über-cool lounge clubs.

Community cheer: Bela Vista

São Paulo’s traditional Italian community, Bela Vista (also called Bixiga) is packed with lively neighbourhood bars and bistros and is a good place to meet the locals.

Clubland: Vila Olímpia

The southern suburbs of Vila Olímpia and Itaim Bibi host most of the dance clubs. Sometimes glamorous, sometimes sweaty, but always hip, São Paulo’s clubs attract international DJs as well as home-grown talent. Clubbers are usually young, affluent Paulistanos.

Fashionable: Pinheiros

Before hitting the dance floor, São Paulo’s beautiful people meet their friends over a beer or a caipirinha in the trendy bars of Pinheiros. Some prefer nearby Vila Madalena, which has a similar vibe with a slight bohemian twist.

Upper crust: Jardims

The bars in aristocratic Jardims tend towards the sedate, attracting a mature and sophisticated crowd. The area is also home to an intriguing mix of expat pubs, gay bars and Anglophile tea rooms.

Nightlife Tips

Wednesday and Thursday nights are the most popular for going out as many wealthy Paulistanos leave the city at the weekends. There are no licensing laws so bars are generally open until around 2am, live music venues and clubs until 6am.

Salgados!

Starting off the set of posts about the casamento with an ode to salgados, one of my favorite parts of eating in Brazil. 

Salgados translates loosely to "salty things" - frequently paired with "doces" or "sweet things" - and they form the core of quick foods in Brazil. You'll find McDonalds and KFC and Pizza Hut here, as you do everywhere, but the salgados dominate the fast food culture here. In this picture, the doces are upper left and the rest is salgados.

Salgados come in many formats. I will try to get the portugese names where possible - any Brazilians reading who want to leave names in the comments, have at it - and I'll just describe my favorite ones...

• fried chicken on a stick. this one needs no explanation, i assume.
  
• chopped chicken in a fried cone of bread (coxinha frango, I think). imagine a nice crispy exterior filled with tasty chopped chicken and herbs.
  
• fried pie with dried beef and onions (pastel de carne seca). this one may be my favorite snack food ever. salty dried beef refreshed with water, chopped, and sauteed with onions, then dropped into fresh dough and deep fried. especially good at the mercado municipal in sao paulo. we're going there.
  
• baked pie with hearts of palm (empada de palmito). like a pot pie, but in miniature. fresh palmito is amazing.
  
• cheese bread (pao de queijo). the ubiquitous snack food in brazil. round balls of bread with cheese baked into them, ranging from very small to enormous. a pao de queijo with a tiny, super-sweet coffee (cafezinho) is the classic brazilian salty snack.
  
• salt cod fritters (bolinhos de bacalhau). fried salt cod snack balls. perfect with an icy cold brazilian draft beer (choppe).
  

I'll come back to this one again and again, in all likelihood. I absolutely crush the salgados when I'm down here...

Stuff Gringos Should Know #1: List of Stuff Gringos Should Know About

This is a bullet list of topics we are going to cover on the blog between now and the wedding. I'll try to address each one in a complete post. Feel free to add content in the comments or to send email to our wedding archive email at "casamentogringo (at) gmail (dot) com"

• air logistics
  
• hotel logistics
  
• visas
  
• vegetarian food (and the lack thereof)
• things that are cheaper in Brazil / things that are more expensive in Brazil
  
• why the city of Sao Paulo is wonderful - but hard to explore
  
• the killer local foodstuffs: acai, pastel, hot dog, paulistano style, bacalhau, carne seca, mortadella sandwiches, cheese bread
  
• food you'll recognize no matter what: steak, chicken, fish dishes
  
• insanely good fruits
  
• chowhounding: comida mineira, feijoada, vatape, acaraje
  
• drinking in sao paulo: caipirinha, beer and wine, cachaca
  
• non alcoholic beverages: sucos, vitaminas, guarana
  
• shopping in sao paulo: havaianas (flip flops), shoes, clothes
  
• why people from Rio and Sao Paulo don't always love each other
  
• beaches in Sao Paulo state
  
• coffee
  
• tourism in and around Sao Paulo
  
• neighborhoods in Sao Paulo
  
• Brazilian BBQ: churrasco
  
• words you need to know in portugese
  
• a calendar of key times and events
  
• printable sheets with instructions to the key places of the wedding
  

What she said...

Blade Runner, anyone? This is the scene from the bar at the top of the Hotel Unique (middle story of the three linked below). It's a big city, people.

Sao Paulo: Bigger Than You Think!

By now you may be thinking...."What will I do in the third biggest city in the world?" Oh, yes...Sao Paulo, along with Shanghai and Mexico, is always fighting for the first place of most populous city in the world. The New York Times did some good specials on the city. Check: The New São Paulo, 36 Hours in São Paulo and At 450, São Paulo Is Full of Energy. John saw some of the gray buildings, where some green dots can be sporadically found. Those green dots are the trees. I love my city, and I hope you will enjoy visiting it. We will have some plans for you, but you are free to go around at your pace.