We can’t shake it — the São Paulo Garulhos airport is for better or worse the most connected airport in Brazil. So even when geography or convenience or logic should allow us to go elsewhere, we keep ending up in São Paulo. In the same way that nobody wants to actually be in Newark Liberty, Dallas Fort Worth, or Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, we all end up there because United, American, or Delta decide that we should. Anyway, before we got involved in that mess, we had the morning to relax.
We had our breakfast at 9am which is really 7am in Manaus, so still early-ish. I downed a few cups of coffee. Unclear if at this point I actually like coffee or I just like Brazilian coffee. More testing needed. As one of the workers walked by, I asked if we could add a cake with Nutella on the side to our breakfast. I remembered it being on the menu. She looked at me like I was ordering the most bizarre thing. Nicole thought maybe when I said, “Com licença, pode pedir um bolo com chocolate ao lado?,” she interpreted it as a straight up bowl of Nutella. I suppose that would seem slightly odd. I double-checked my portuguese on Google Translate and I was using the correct words. “Bolo” is indeed cake, and not bowl. Maybe nobody does cake with Nutella? Ah, the excitement and general confusion of trying to speak in a foreign language.
After breakfast, we walked back to the bay where one can supposedly see sharks swimming during high tide, but no activity. We saw some researchers testing the water temperature and logging any would-be shark visitors, but I guess the conditions weren’t desirable for a pop-in. Lastly we took the buggy out for a spin on the peninsula to get some B-roll footage for the very important Bricole 2026 travel video. We set up the GoPro on the ground so I could drive over it for some very cinematic shots. After getting the necessary footage, we got back in and found that it would no longer start — not even an ignition sound. I told Nicole to just walk back to the pousada and finish packing up while I dealt with this.
I sent a WhatsApp message to the rental company and someone was there in less than 15 minutes. If I understood correctly, he said the fuel line got disconnected and implied it happens a lot because of the bumpiness of the roads on the island. After quickly reconnecting it, he offered me a ride back to the pousada in the buggy where I discovered that he also seemed to be struggling with the gears. We had a laugh about it. It’s not just Bricole. I told him we could get a ride to the airport from the pousada. It just seemed more reliable.
The pousada’s pickup truck and its air conditioning delivered us to the island’s airport in comfort. LATAM had already issued us seats through the app, so it was a relatively stress free experience. We slowly got in line behind almost everyone and were pleasantly surprised to find that they didn’t make us check our crew bags. This is actually a big deal because it means we don’t have to exit security in São Paulo, wait at baggage claim, and go back through security to get to our connecting flight. On top of that, we got a whole row to ourselves in 15 D/E, but Nicole let me crawl over her to have the window seat when nobody showed up. We had some nice views of the island during takeoff.
If you are familiar with Brazil’s general geography, or consult the flight map here, you will see that going from Ilha Noronha to Manaus via São Paulo is not exactly a direct route. We could technically have flown Azul from the island to Recife, but there would have been a lengthy layover in Recife before a late flight to Manaus that wouldn’t get in until the middle of the night. Somehow it’s still faster to go through São Paulo. Sigh. So it was about 3.5 hours to São Paulo from Noronha and another 3.5 hours from São Paulo to Manaus.
We had a couple hours to kill in the terminal, so we fought our way through the always chaotic terminal until we reached the VIP lounges. The Priority Pass membership has a few gems around the world, but more often than not, you just find more chaos. Our first lounge—the Advantage VIP had very worn seats and alright food, but once we left and went to another lounge creatively called “The Lounge,” we found better seats and bad food. Nicole said her banana tasted like a tree. I suppose it’s worth something to at least grab some bottles of water without paying $8 at a store in the terminal. Fairly soon, we found ourselves at the GOL check-in counter.
I had never technically checked in because their app (like most apps in Brazil) doesn’t actually work. Our fate was thusly in the hands of a GOL gate agent with heavy makeup, plumped lips, and squinty eyes. With a semblance of a concerned frown through all the Botox, she explained the flight was “bem cheio” or really full, but to stay nearby. We had a backup on a LATAM flight that was about 25 minutes later, but we have another early morning tomorrow so the earlier we can get to Manaus the better. Nearly the last to board once again, we were handed a ripped off piece of paper with 15B and 15E written on it. As I told Nicole, I hope nobody is in our seats, because proving this is going to be difficult.
As it turned out, there was actually someone in my seat, but halfway into my stumbling Portuguese, they cleared out of it. We had the exit row, which is always nice on these flights since there seems to be a seat reclining epidemic for which there is not yet a vaccine. While I would generally say LATAM offers a better product than GOL whether it be their app, their check-in process, how they handle standbys, their bag policy, and even their snacks, they do consistently seem to be a little delayed. GOL, on the other hand doesn’t mess. They will start pushing from the gate whether everyone is ready for it or not.
We departed Garulhos in the hopes of never seeing it again. The atmosphere there is bad, it looks like it’s in a constant state of construction, the horrendous acoustics from constant gate announcements would give anyone a headache, and the air quality itself seems poor. From this point forward, we should be done with all that as we are gradually moving closer to home — heading now to northwestern Brazil. I finished the entire series of Fauda on the plane, burning through about six episodes today due to the lengthy flights. As Nicole said, it would be like flying from Newark to Houston and then Los Angeles. Brazil is big. We finally touched down in Manaus and collected our bags before catching an Uber to the Blue Tree hotel, where seemingly everyone from our flight was also headed. It’s been a long travel day and tomorrow will involve another two fights. Oy.
passports & pepto bismol 