On arrival we grabbed our bags from the left luggage office and caught an Uber to the Hampton by Hilton hotel where we had attempted to reserve runway facing rooms over the chat app. At reception we were allocated room 1428 and told the roof is open until 6PM and from 8AM the next day. If you are staying at the hotel you need a high floor even numbered room, the higher the number the better rooms run up to XX32 room 1428 gave a distant view of the terminal and both runways but not in a way that anything can be read off. We ventured up to the roof where we found they had installed a small table, a bunch of power sockets and a few chairs at the top of the staircase by the door, outside you share the roof with the air-conditioning units and other mechanical equipment, there are also a few trip hazards and no lighting making it potentially lethal after dark hence it being closed. One of the staff came up to the roof about 5:45 and hung around for about 15 minutes before leaving without approaching us. we remained on the roof until about 7PM by which time it was pitch black and we made our way off the roof using our phone torches for guidance, they must have come back at some point after we left because the doors were locked the next morning and not opened until around 8AM.
At the planning stage we identified that, much like the US, a number of the Brazilian airliners are not based at a specific airport and make their way randomly around Brazilian airports so we opted to remain in Guarulhos on Sunday for what we knew was always going to be a very slow day and it proved to be so with me making 9 frames between 06:45 and 17:15 when we left. The fog rolled in after dawn and hung around for about 90 minutes allowing us some time for the free breakfast buffet and after that we spent some time on the roof and discovered that it is possible to see the approach and climb out from Congonhas although that is very much subject to haze, The Hilton was good enough to extend our room until 18:00 at no additional cost and we took the shuttle bus the airport at 14:00 for our 17:15
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WrpHEVfALgJtE3EC6
