9 Paranagua, Brazil

If Brazil is a Nine West and we are a size 8...then Sao Paolo and Rio (which we visited a couple years back) would be a pair of 8 1/2 black patent stilettos--stylish, glamorous, but maybe a tad too big. Ouch, blisters. We both decided we were ready to try something a little smaller on for size. Problem was we weren't exactly sure what we were looking for. We showed up at the Sao Paulo bus station, picked a bus to Curitiba which left in 10 minutes, and we were on our way. Curitiba was not love at first sight for us, or second or third for that matter, so we decided to hop another bus to a town called Paranagua.

Paranagua certainly delivered on the small town Brazil experience we were in search of. Paranagua has a charming waterfront dotted with colorful boats, cobblestone streets lined with colonial buildings, but as much activity as college campus on a Sunday morning. Locals start filling cafes mid-morning, drinking large beers always served with their own coozies, and the popular per kilo buffets get cleaned out by 1pm. Paranagua's sole museum sits on the edge of town and is filled with an odd collection of "historical" items including old dental equipment, early computers, and Zack Morris-style cell phones. It's as if the museum curator asked everyone in town to bring in their old stuff and put it in glass cases. There is also Ilha dos Valadares to explore, connected by a footbridge from the marina. Even quieter than Paranagua, the island seems to have no actual businesses aside from people who use a spare room or garage in their home to sell snacks or beer to go.

We had two places to call home in Paranagua. The first was Hotel Litoral, where we enjoyed our small, clean room with camouflage-print pillowcases for $25 per night. The included breakfast's quality depended on our timing: one morning we were offered only plain rolls with coffee and juice, another we got additional scrambled eggs, cheese and meat. Our second home was the fantastic sandwich pagoda we found on our first night and kept going back: Sanduba. The average price for a sandwich was $2 and they were absolutely delicious! We obviously were not alone in that opinion since the counter was always busy with people scarfing down sandwiches and intently watching Brazilian soap operas. Even more popular was the drive-up option. After eating we'd head across the street to the town gymnasium where we caught many a game of indoor soccer.

The real adventure began when we took a boat to Ilha Rasa. We saw banners in town advertising an annual festa on the island and boats leaving every two hours. We planned to take a morning boat, enjoy the party for a few hours, and then return to Paranagua to catch a night bus to Curitiba and on to Iguazu. Ilha Rasa didn't look that far on the map, but our rundown boat sputtered slowly through the bay, we got beached in too-shallow water a few times, and we stopped twice to deposit other passengers off on canoes and row boats that sidled up to our boat mid-water. Three hours later we arrived on a tiny island with a dozen or so houses, two churches, and a central dance hall that was being used as a bar for the festa. We sat down, polished off two beers and some cake, toe-tapped to the blaring samba music, and figured we'd better get to the dock and be on our way if we wanted to make that bus to Curitiba.

Boat after boat arrived with more festa-goers, seemingly doubling the island's population each time, but much to our chagrin all of the captains responded in the negative when we asked if they were going back to Paranagua. With every shake of the head no the sneaking suspicion began to creep into our minds that something might have gotten lost in translation when we bought our boat tickets that morning. Finally a man who we recognized from our boat in the morning out to Ilha Rasa came down to the dock to explain to us, in Portuguese basic enough for us to decipher, that boats only traveled from Paranagua to Ilha Rasa on this particular day for the festa, and then returned the following day post-festa. That's right, we were stranded on the island for the night.

You might have noticed the presence of hotels missing from our earlier description of Ilha Rasa. Luckily our bearer of bad news who we came to know as Rafael, was also the bearer of remarkable hospitality. He took us from the dock to his family's home, and they took us in for the night. They were so incredibly generous, making up a bed for us in their dorm-style sleeping quarters and feeding us every few hours with freshly fried fish, chicken stew, pork cutlets, empanadas, and more. They made us delicious caipirinhas and we sat with them for hours on their patio communicating in some way between Portuguese, Spanish and a little English. We had a wonderful time getting to know the extended family of 15 and are infinitely grateful for their hospitality. The next morning they all came down to the dock to send us off when the boats started heading back to Paranagua again.The ride back was filled with satisfied (and hungover) festa-goers returning to Paranagua. This island of 100 residents certainly did know how to put on a festa. With fireworks, bingo, and dancing, the party raged into the early morning hours. It was a relief to get back on the main land again. After parting ways with our hosts Rafael, Renata, and their adorable two-year-old son Matheus we were on our way again. We caught the next bus to Curitiba and got to spend the afternoon there before our night bus to Iguazu. The center of activity on a Sunday seemed to be the Passeio Publico with it's caged monkeys, flamingoes, and aquarium and small lake for paddle boating. We treated ourselves to a boat ride and bag of bacon popcorn. It certainly had been a tiring couple days but we used our exhaustion as an asset and slept like babies on our overnight bus to Iguazu, dreaming of home-made Ilha Rasa caipirinhas all the way.

View more pictures from Paranagua here.

6 Sao Paulo, Brazil

The journey from Russia to South America was a long and very smelly one. Due to a perfect storm of a lack of clean clothes, a night train ride, and spending the night before our flight at the airport we'd been without a real bed or shower for almost 72 hours and worst of all hadn't changed clothes that whole time. Our apologies go out to the woman that was sitting in 8C on the Moscow to Madrid leg of our trip. Needless to say we were very happy to arrive and check in to our room at Hotel Formule 1 Paulista.

Our priorities for our first day in Brazil were resting and recuperating and doing some much needed laundry. Check check check. It was also Patrick's half birthday, and our tradition is that he always gets an ice cream cake on August 18. But there didn't appear to be any Baskin Robbins or Ben and Jerry's in the neighborhood and the local grocery store didn't carry Carvel. So instead we fashioned one out of grocery store bundt cake and Brazilian ice cream. Mmmmmm ice cream cake...

We had to get creative with our clothes as well. We really had no clean clothes left at this point, so in order even to drop our laundry at the cleaners we had to work out some outfits. Patrick wore a bathing suit and inside-out t-shirt and Katrina kept her jeans and constructed a top from her sarong. We looked a little odd walking down the city streets of Sao Paulo, but at least you couldn't smell us coming.

After a day of rest we were re-energized and ready to see the city. Sao Paulo gets a bad rap as a city with not a lot to see or do for tourists, but we very much enjoyed our time strolling the fashionable Oscare Freire and artsy Paulista Avenues and checking out the wall to wall graffiti alley at Beco do Batman. The Banespa building offered great panoramic views of the city--it was free to climb but it took 30 minutes of background checks, waiting in line, riding two separate elevators and climbing some stairs for 5 minutes at the top. The views were certainly worth it though. We visited a nearby monastery and checked out their bread (apparently in Brazil, it's the thing for monasteries to each have their own bakery). We happened upon a union demonstration in front of a church, a free concert in a cobbled plaza. And of course, we dined...

On our first trip to Brazil in 2007 we were introduced to sucos. These mouth-watering fruit juices are made fresh to order, in dozens of flavors, at stands on nearly every street corner. Sucos was one of the things we were most excited about for our return trip. Within our first two days in Brazil we drank gallons of the stuff including Patrick's favorite lime and Katrina's avocado milkshake. We'd often accompany the beverage with some pao de quejo (ridiculously addictive bite-size cheese bread) or croquette-like chicken dumplings always available at these corner shops. What we didn't see in Rio but was huge in Sao Paulo was mortadella sandwiches. We tasted our first at the Central Market where the special brand of salami was piled high, covered in cheese, and slapped between two halves of a roll for what we surmised was decoration. Vegetarians, now would be a good time to avert your eyes:

View more pictures from Sao Paulo here.

As we begin our travels on a new continent, we thought it an appropriate time to fill you in on some more travel tidbits:

• Our best purchase so far has been membership to the American Airlines Admiral's Club. Since this is our honeymoon, after all, we decided at Logan to spring for the little luxury of admittance to these VIP airport lounges where we have been met by comfy chairs, free food, free wifi--Heathrow even had a self-serve bar. Going back to sitting and waiting at the terminal gate now seems like such an assault on our senses.
• Our biggest point of contention has been Tetris. We have the game on our mini laptop and it is a fun diversion during long plane and bus rides. Problem is we are constantly fighting over whose turn it is to play. We are currently in the process of negotiating a Tetris treaty to promote "even steven" game play. We won't disclose who the current champion is but will tell you his name rhymes with Batrick.
• Ever since his first taste of yogurt (yes, ever) in Milan, Patrick has fallen head over heels for the stuff. Katrina suspects it is serving as a substitute for Patrick's usual, or should we say unusual, daily milk intake. Also of note, Patrick has yet to eat a hamburger.
• Watch out for a new fashion trend: what Katrina calls "aladdin pants". We saw women wearing these low-crotched baggy pants all over Europe and expect they'll be crossing the Atlantic soon. What Katrina doesn't expect to see on Newbury St. anytime in the near future is the lace boots that are so hot right now in Russia.
• Between the Red Sox second half swoon and Tiger's PGA championship meltdown, Patrick thinks he picked a good six months to be out of the country. Of course if you ask him his absence and the respective poor performances are not a coincidence.

Also, we have seen an in-flight movie or two thus far...here are some of our thoughts and our star ratings out of four on the flicks:

• Duplicity (**1/2)- This one kept our attention but the flashbacks, which took up half the movie, were bad, probably due to the lack of chemistry between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The highlight of the movie was Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson as rival, take-no-prisoners corporate execs.
• Sunshine Cleaning (**)- The premise of a crime scene clean up business was semi-interesting but otherwise we aren't sure what this movie was about.
• Inkheart (*1/2)- Besides the implausible ending (we know it is a kid's movie but still) this movie left us with three burning questions...What bet did Jennifer Connelly lose to make her take a two-scene, one-line role in this film? How does Helen Mirren go from an Oscar to this? Does Brendan Fraser choose to only take sci-fi/fantasy protagonist roles?
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (**)- The effects were cool and we enjoyed the cast, but we spent most of the movie trying to remember who is Liev Schriber's better half. For those not in the know we will save you the trip to google: Naomi Watts.

16 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

November marked six months at our new jobs, which most importantly meant that we now qualified to take vacation days! Wasting no time, we set out on our maiden voyage to South America-- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to be exact.

We quickly learned that traveling overseas to South America is nothing like the transatlantic flights to Europe. Our combined 13-hours in the air on American Airlines was cramped and uncomfortable and to make matters worse the promised showing of "Evan Almighty" never happened.

Our descent through the early morning clouds was breathtaking and the very first thing we saw upon touching down in Rio was a soccer pitch in the middle of the airport tarmac. After spending a few hours navigating customs we stepped out into the humid (and thankfully warm) air of springtime in Brazil to grab the bus. The journey from the airport to the tourist beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana is about 45 minutes, so rather than start out the visit with an expensive cab ride we took the Real Autobus from the airport. Thanks to a little pre-trip research we found this transportation gem which for the price of 6 Real (the currency of Brazil, which is somehow pronounced hay-ow) drops you off at the door of your hotel upon request.

After passing by dozens of rundown hotels en route, we were relieved to see that Hotel Praia Ipanema was clean, modern and in one piece. It was perfectly located in the heart of Ipanema, surrounded by shops and restaurants, and a short walk east to rowdy Copacabana or west to pedestrian Leblon. It's also one of the few hotels with private balconies off each room. We spent many evenings sitting on our balcony (pictured above) with a cold Skol taking in the sunset and local youth playing soccer on the fields placed end to end all the way down the beach.

If you haven't been able to glean it from the previous paragraphs....soccer is kind of a big deal in Brazil. As a matter of fact our trip coincided with the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup which was being held on Copacabana Beach. We made a point of attending a club match while in town so we ventured out to Maracana, one of the world's great soccer stadiums, to take in local Flamengo versus Santos, the former club of the one and only Pele. Much to our dismay, though we arrived 4 hours before game time, there wasn't a seat available of the 95,000 in the cavernous stadium. Patrick, decked out in his new Flamengo jersey, even tried to buy tickets from two scalpers but his hand gestures were not very effective. We were left to take in the pregame festivities/fireworks show which was a spectacle in itself.

Rio offers an amazing combination of natural beauty and city life. We took the cable car up Sugarloaf Mountain to get spectacular views of Copacabana Beach on one side, and bustling downtown Rio on the other. At the botanical gardens we saw lush, tropical foliage from rainforests across South America. And on our clearest day we took the cog rail up to Christ the Redeemer to see this "New" Wonder of the World (pictured below).

Of course we also used that good weather to spend an afternoon on the beach, where vendors peddled snacks, caprinhas, beer and other goodies as we soaked in the sun. Katrina took a dip in the chilly ocean, but made sure to stay on the Ipanema side of the smelly canal that divides the beach from Leblon. A strong ocean current moves the city waste from the canal east to west, so we do NOT recommend swimming in Leblon.

Downtown Rio, known as "Centro", offers all the benefits of a metropolitan city. We saw historical landmarks like the Palacio de Catete and Quinta da Boa Vista, both former imperial palaces, as well as the National Museum of History. We also made a point to visit a samba club at night to hear great live music and watch the very skilled dancers. Though it was apparent that we had no idea what we were doing, we had a fantastic time faking a samba and dancing the night away.

While in Rio we became addicted to sucos tropicales--tropical fruit juice that is freshly prepared for you at sucos stands (our favorite, "Natural e Sabor", is below) on every corner. They offer every fruit you could possibly name, and many we couldn't. Like acai, a purple amazonian berry that is popular for blending with other fruits. On one occasion we ordered a pineapple sucos and were surprised by the thick green concoction presented to us. Halfway through the drink we figured out that it was definitely an avocado milkshake we were consuming. The words for pineapple and avocado are very similar in Portuguese, and our pronunciation skills are definitely lacking. Who knew sweetened, liquified avocado was so delicious?

One of our favorite meals was at the Garota de Ipanema restaurant where we tried a banana and pineapple pizza. For you bossa nova buffs out there- Garota de Ipanema is the location where the famous tune "The Girl from Ipanema" was penned, hence the name of the restaurant.

Aside from fruit, what Brazilians seemed to love most was their meat and cheese. The churrascarias (traditional, all-you-can-eat barbecues) offered dozens of different meats, which the waiters served by shaving slices off of skewers directly onto our plates. Pay-per-weight buffets are also very popular in Rio. We tried this out at a popular chain called Kilograma, where almost all the dishes were covered in heavy amounts of cheese and cream. We don't know how those Brazilians manage to squeeze into their itsy bitsy bathing suits!

All and all our first visit to South America exceeded expectations and we are looking forward to returning to the great continent to the south!