A Long Day Travelling...

  Continuing on from yesterday's blog entry, I was asleep in the bumpy ride till we reached Santa Cruz in the early hours of the morning, around 06:30AM.

Observation deck @ Viru Viru International Airport

    I was due to meet Paola's cousin, Mijael, at the new bus terminal. After disembarking the bus before 7AM, I waited at the cafe near the entrance of the terminal for 2 hours. Paola gave me the number for Mijael and I called him on several occasions. I think we got lost in translation, as he did not realise I was next to the coaches; he believed I was inside the main entrance to the terminal. In any case, we found each other around 09:15AM at the main entrance to the terminal.

Sandwich on-board TAM Mercosur

  He is a year younger than me, and is currently studying engineering at a university in Santa Cruz. He says Santa Cruz is a dangerous place, although I was there too short of a time to notice anything. He is also studying English at the moment, and his English was good enough for us to have a good conversation, and I wish I was able to converse with him in Spanish too!!!



   Anyways, we grabbed a bus costing us a few Bolivianos each to the old bus station. From there we grabbed an hourly bus that goes to Viru Viru, the international airport of Bolivia. It was also very cheap, costing 6 Bolivianos (55p) each. I thought it was going to take 90 minutes or so, but we were there within 60 minutes.

Connecting flight @ Asuncion, Paraguay

   Once inside, we had a subway melt (with a cookie and drink) at the subways in the arrival terminal. It was quite delicious, costing 39 Bolivianos (£3.59) each. Although I treated him because he had taken me all this way to Viru Viru in his spare time (over 3 hours). Around 12PM, he left to go back to Santa Cruz. He was a lovely guy, and I hope to speak to him again so I can improve my Spanish, and him, English!!!



    So I checked in at the TAM airlines counter after he left. I had to pay 174 Bolivianos (£16.07) in tax, which was a bit crazy, but I had no choice.

    Then I went through the main security gate, and waited till around 2PM before we started boarding. We were off the ground and on our way to Asuncion, Paraguay around 2:40PM. TAM seem to be a really good company; for the short trip everyone received sweets and a snack!! We landed around 2 hours later.

     After disembarking, I went through the connecting flight area, and waited till 5:40PM before we started boarding. This flight was slightly longer than the first, and we arrived in Sao Paulo at 9PM local time, although Brazil is an hour ahead of Bolivia, so the flight took over 2 hours. We received dinner on board, which was really delicious, especially the desert.

   So after disembarking the plane, I went through immigration, which was pretty quick. It was around 10PM, and I had to get the bus to the metro quickly, otherwise it would have closed around 12AM. I had trouble getting money out with my Caxton card, but thankfully there was a machine that accepted it.

    I managed to get a bus around 10PM. I was setting next to a professor who was teaching the bible in Bolivia, so we had a pretty interesting conversation. He is now doing a second doctorate in Hebrew, which is quite incredible. In any case, we reached the metro station, Tatuape around 11PM, and he helped me to get a metro ticket, costing 3 Reais (96p) before I went on my way.

   After one line change, 9 stops and 15 minutes later, I had reached Faria Lima metro station. One kind man helped me to go a safe way to the street that connects to my hostel. He had also travelled Europe so he knew how it felt to be travelling alone!

    I had arrived at my hostel around 11:15PM all hot and bothered from a long day of travelling. Once I had paid 135 Reais (£42.99) for 5 nights stay, I chilled out and had a drink. Not long after I was asleep around 1AM. I had set my alarm for 9AM.

Weather
Warm around 19 degrees at night (Sao Paulo)