Brotas is located approximately 200 Km or 3 hours northwest of the Center of Sao Paulo. As soon as we arrived at the airport we picked up the rental car (yikes! no GPS available!!!). The car is a Chevy hatchback and runs on either gasoline or ethanol. The ethanol prices are about half that of gasoline. After driving 30 minutes in the wrong direction, we got out the iphone and that helped us get back on track. We made good time when we knew the correct way and we got to Brotas in 4 hours. We included a stop at a Brazilian franchise restaurant called Frango Assado (Rotissirie Chicken). The meal was what we needed after a long overnight flight and the driving mishap. Not knowing any Portuguese, we pointed to items on the menu. We both received steak, salad and polenta. We made our way to Brotas which some consider to be the outdoor adventure capital of Sao Paulo state. We missed our reservation for Thursday afternoon, so we checked into our hotel called Posado Do Lago.
The hotel is very nice with a very friendly staff. They get very few English speakers that come here without a guide, so they considered us very "courageous". The owner, Fernando, and staff was so concerned that they sent his daughter to greet us. His daughter, Fernanda, had spent about 6 months in New Jersey as a foreign exchange student and spoke English very well. When we asked her what she missed most about the US she said Doritos (Cool Ranch) and pole vaulting at her high school.
We had dinner at Malagueta,which offered a self service buffet (pay by the weight) and an alacarte menu from which we ordered. We both had sandwiches (three mini hoagies). Brazil is two hours ahead of New York, so the jet lag is not as bad as Europe or Asia, but after dinner we turned in for the night satsifed that we had a arrived and knowing that we had an adventurous day ahead.
The hotel is very nice with a very friendly staff. They get very few English speakers that come here without a guide, so they considered us very "courageous". The owner, Fernando, and staff was so concerned that they sent his daughter to greet us. His daughter, Fernanda, had spent about 6 months in New Jersey as a foreign exchange student and spoke English very well. When we asked her what she missed most about the US she said Doritos (Cool Ranch) and pole vaulting at her high school.
We had dinner at Malagueta,which offered a self service buffet (pay by the weight) and an alacarte menu from which we ordered. We both had sandwiches (three mini hoagies). Brazil is two hours ahead of New York, so the jet lag is not as bad as Europe or Asia, but after dinner we turned in for the night satsifed that we had a arrived and knowing that we had an adventurous day ahead.
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