Our travels through Uruguay were a little shorter than we expected. Once we hit Porto Alegre, Brazil we searched for our tickets to Chui/Chuy the Brazilian and Uruguayan border town. However, the only buses going there were passing through and would drop us off in the middle of the night.

We try to make it a habit to show up to new towns during the day, especially when we don’t have any hostel reservations to guide us where to go. We could just go and wing it, or catch the bus which had a special going on directly to Punta del Este. We decided to forgo the few towns before – if we really wanted we could always back-track, so we headed to Punto del Este. (more…)

Since we’ve started traveling, at least after we left Peru, we have been keeping track of our expenses. We hope to not only keep track of our own expenses but to also give you a better idea of how much it would cost you to travel through Brazil. This is a budget breakdown for two, so if you want to get a rough estimate you can always just half it – though I’m not sure if that would be a perfect estimate. We visited Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Paranagua, Ilha do Mel, Florianopolis and Porto Alegre. Most of our time was in Rio and Sao Paulo- though there is one major flaw in our budget here – we didn’t pay for housing. In Rio we stayed with a friend of mine for 3 weeks and in Sao Paulo we stayed with Aiko’s cousin for 1 month. Truth be told, it was part of the reason we could afford to stay in Brazil for so long as it is a pricey place to live/visit.

One other thing to factor into our budget – we didn’t eat out a lot and only rarely went out for drinks at a night club. We did drink, but that is covered in our “Food & Beverage” total, we often bought beer or wine with our groceries so it became too troublesome to sort out. We also often splurged when we didn’t have to pay for housing – and in Sao Paulo we had an almost nightly tradition that involved a bottle of wine and playing cards with family. If you don’t drink and can live off of rice and ramen I’m sure you could do better with your food budget than us.

And here is the breakdown for Brazil…

Our “Special” events included getting into a Samba school, Pao de Acucar (R$106), and Carnival (R$370).

If you see any other indicators where there is R$0.00 for accommodations it is because we used Couchsurfing - which I’ll be writing a post on that soon.

Our “Other” slot was a catch all so when we bought havaianas, bathroom stuff, sun tan lotion (which is expensive in Rio), or the first and last time we bought cigarettes it is all included here.

“Transportation” not only includes local transportation but our tickets for each destination. Brazil has a really great website that lists bus routes from most bus companies called Busca Omnibus. To give you an idea of what we paid for each leg (this is the total for both our tickets):

Rio -> Sao Paulo R$151
Sao Paulo – > Curitiba R$135
Curitiba -> Paranagua R$44.82
Paranagua -> Ilha do Mel (Ferry) R$32
Ilha do Mel -> Paranagua R$32
Paranagua ->Curitiba R$38.78
Curitiba -> Florianopolis R$100.06
Florianopolis -> Porto Alegre R$139.80
Porto Alegre -> Punta del Este (Uruguay) R$329.50

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++UPDATE++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After reading a comment inquiring for a bit more information, I wanted to add a little more useful information.

Here is a break down of a few items you may be interested in purchasing

Food

Juice R$5-7, there are ‘Suco’ stands all over Rio de Janeiro and you will likely purchase an Acai or some other exotic fruit.

Caiparinha – R$5-10

Cocoanut -  R$5 on the beaches of Rio

Beer – R$8-14 for 1 liter

Lunch at dine-in restaurant R$40-60 for two people (may be more expensive depending on drinks.

Public Transportation

Bus R$2.35 per-person (non A.C. bus) in Rio, R$2.9 in Florianopolis

Metro R$3.20 per-person in Rio , R$3 per person in Sao Paulo

Other

Sunblock – R$16-30 (It is expensive here so bring your own)

It was St. Patrick’s day, and being our anniversary we had to go out and see what Buenos Aires had to offer. It was the one South American country listed as having a big celebration and it was also part of the reason we were in Argentina at that time. So go and explore was a must. (more…)

Our trip to Florianopilis did not turn out exactly how we planned it. We stayed in a hostel far away from the city center but rather close to one of their beaches. After some bad luck on Isla do Miel, we decided to enjoy the beach instead of traveling up and down the island to see all of the sites.

I don’t  regret that decision.

We spent three days in Florianopilis, and only did one touristy thing by accident, but that is what makes this story interesting.

(more…)

I was familiar with the phrase “Spanglish,” in fact I would say that I am quite fluent in it, that and I’ve seen the movie a few times so that counts right? However the first time I heard the word Portuñol/Portunhol it made me smile. Just as Spanglish is a mixture of Spanish and English, Portuñol/Portunhol is a mixture of Portugués/Português and Español/Espanhol (Spanish). So why is this important? Well if you are traveling to Brazil it may help you out a bit. (more…)