Flying to Sao Paulo - an adventure in itself

Here are the highlights:

Arriving in SF airport, Alisa discovers that her shoes have two right inserts. We make cardboard signs to beg for cell phone use.

Delicious Mexican farewell dinner with Audrey and Meghan in which they try to give us everything they have on them because they think we´re not fully prepared . . .

Sit next to Peruvian grandpa on flight to San Salvador who joins us in finger painting 50 business cards.

Four hour lay over in San Salvador. We decide to surprise Ms. Lynch and Ms. Raimondi - if all goes right we have exactly one hour to see them and no idea where in El Salvador they are. Lucky we hitched a ride to the CASA and they were there. Bliss.

In the San Salvador airport discover that we finally have a host in Sao Paulo and that he is leaving his key for us at the front desk of his apartment building.

Layover in Lima - this is the "SP (Sao Paulo) Team" (as coined by Luis):

Raphael: "Ha-phael." Our new best friend. Sat next to him on the flight from San Salvador to Rio. Professional freelance photographer from Belo Horizonte who´s been living in NY City for the past two years. Married at city hall last month. Hasn´t slept in over 70 hours (and, therefore, legally insane).
Anji: Graduated in June from Georgetown. Visiting friend she studied abroad with in China. Works for an anti-smoking campaign in DC (we were, of course, sitting across from the smoking bar).
Luis: Lives in suburb of Sao Paulo. Is from the Dominican Republic. Going to dental school. Showed us photos of bloody mouth surgery. Was transporting his friend´s dog to Sao Paulo, and, yes, the tiny dog was definitely dressed in a santa suit.
Julia: From Sao Paulo. Studied in London for 4 years. Just visited geologist boyfriend in El Salvador. Hitch-hiked from London to Prague without spending a dime. Wore bunny ears for 3 weeks while traveling in Europe - sees a girl in the tube who is also wearing bunny ears, they switch ears and part ways.

During this layover we still had no idea how to get from the airport to our host´s apartment but luckily Julia offers to take us with her to her house. Her mom, Carmen, picks all of us up and we go back to their flat for much needed showers and a traditional Brazilian breakfast of fresh bread, meat, and cheese. Increible.

Then Carmen says, "It´s time to enter the real world," and drops us at the subway station, packs on our backs.

Here is some Brazilian money: