Bento Gonçalves-- Getting there

Hello my people! I have returned from the land down under-- Rio Grande do Sul! (this is the southern-most state of Brazil) Like I said last week, I went for a trip with some of my dear friends to the city of Bento Gonçalves, the heart of wine country in Brazil. This will be a multi-part blog series for your reading convience and leisure. And it will be mostly pictures.

We left Thursday. In a great coinkidink, it was probably one of the worst days of the history of airlines in Brazil. The entire country was an absolute mess with delays and cancellations. We were one of the very lucky ones who left only two hours late (and I really am very thankful). We were flying to a small city called Caxias do Sul. But as we arrived and were landing, the pilot came on and said, "Welcome to Porto Alegre. The weather was bad in Caxias do Sul, so you have been diverted here. We have arranged transportation for you."
So after arriving there we boarded a bus for two hours to our original location. It was really a beautiful route that I mostly slept through, and when I wasn´t sleeping it made me carsick. But we arrived at the Caxias airport, then got on our van to go to Bento Gonçalves. We arrived about 5 hours late, but hey, we arrived.

That´s all for today´s edition, because it´s late and I´m tired. Here are some travel photos for you.

Jéssica´s first flight!


Jungle survival kit.


Ivan was not feeling photogenic by the time we were put on the bus in Porto Alegre. This is saying a lot if you know what a ham he usually is. :)


The general sentiment at this point in the trip.

The trip there was rough, but it was definitely more than worth it. Stay tuned for the rest of the series!!!!!! :)