Up in Northern Brazil

In Sao Luis now. Has a colonial city center, which is actually on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.

Getting here was a pain though - an early, early morning flight out of GRU, which is over an hour from Sao Paolo center. A taxi would've been the easiest option, but very costly. So, I cabbed it to the closer, domestic airport (why my flight didn't take off from there, I have no clue…) and transferred to a shuttle bus from there. Not exactly cheap & efficient, but saved me a bit of money.
And once I got to the airport, the check-in process was confusing as hell. The MAIN departure counter of GOL Airlines wouldn't let me check in there, telling me to go downstairs. Which was the arrivals floor…could there be a check-in counter there??? I went as told, without being able to find it. And then up again. Down again. Until I got frustrated enough to have someone take to me check-in. Finally.

Uneventful flight, changing planes at Brasilia.

The very good looking couple sitting next to me had the new, ultra-cool Mac Air. I might want one...
I like GOL - very orange : )

Landed at Sao Luis. Now, how to get to city center?!
Since it was early in the afternoon, I thought taking the public bus would be OK. Until I spoke to the woman at the tourist information desk, who advised me against it - Today was a Sunday and very little people out and about. She said I had a high chance of being mugged if I decided on the bus and walked to the hostel from there with my backpack. Well, that's comforting!!!

Ended up forking over a whopping 35 reals for a taxi. Boooooooooo.

Traveling through Brazil is going to be expensive…

I didn't rally have much planned for this city. I only came because it's the major entry point for my next destination (secret, secret, secret!!!).

So, what did I do…
Walked around the historic center. Very small, so didn't take much time. Had a very Caribbean feel to it, I think. Although I confess to not ever having been to the Caribbean. Oh, but Cuba counts, right? Anyways, I just meant that the city had an old, tropical atmosphere to it.

I discovered that I like the public phone booths in Brazil:

And checked out some random, useless museum. As there were no other visitors, the lone staff was extremely friendly (bored may be more appropriate?!) and showed me around and chatted away. A couple of guillotine apparatuses were interesting.

Other than that, went out to the commercial area outside of the colonial center to stock up on toiletries and stuff that I'd be needing for the rest of the month.
Really, nothing too exciting happened here.

Oh, but my first experience with real, local food was a huge positive! Loved everything.
I have to say, though, Sao Lois seemed dodgy in many places. Didn't dare venture out at night.

Can't wait for tomorrow!!!

(Apologies for the rather uninformative, lame post! My next entry will be funner - I promise.)