We arrived in Porto Alegre early in the morning after our overnight bus from Uruguay. We checked into our hostel and made a trip to the grocery store to do some good ole home cooking. Getting your own groceries on the road is a great way to save some money, eat healthy, and it’s always nice to spend some time in a kitchen. I really miss cooking every day back home.

The next morning we decided to try our luck at a free walking tour. Cities around the world offer free walking tours. There is no charge for the guide that takes you around the city, but it is common curtesy to tip a few dollars to help support the tour and guides. The group that took us around Porto Alegre was a group of friends who have a passion for their city and simply want to share its history with others. Porto Alegre has a ton of history and the tour helped to cover the basics that the average tourist may not discover on their own wandering around the town.

The following day we decided to go to our first Brazilian soccer match. We caught the metro with a few friends to the impressive stadium that was the home field of the Gremios and wore our blue to support the local team. It was great to visit a sporting event in another country, especially a football match since football is taken so seriously here. The Gremios were in the lead until the end when the opposing team had an unbelievable comeback and scored with two seconds on the clock ending the game in a tie.

That evening, our plan was to catch a bus to Florianopolis, a beach town 11 hours north up the coast. Unfortunately, all the buses were booked for the day. We crashed one more night at our hostel and jumped on the first bus headed north the following morning. When we finally arrived in Florianopolis, we realized the weather wasn’t the best for beaches and surfing for the next few days. While using the bathroom of the bus terminal, I read on a website that we could fly farther north out of the crappy weather for $50 dollars! We got a hotel for the night before catching our flight to Rio the following evening.

Sometimes things just don’t work the way you hope when you are on the road. Fortunate for us, we have extra time when mishaps happen. Even though we bused 11 hours north to then sleep and catch a flight even farther up the coast, it still worked out AND was cheaper for us in the long run.