Day 89 - Sao Paulo

Now, to put the record straight, Sao Paulo doesn't have the best reputation. Police are armed and very ready to use their weapons. The city is huge (the biggest in south america) and is loaded with high-rise blocks and dark, shadowy streets. And they recently passed a law to let people drive through red traffic lights to reduce the amount of car-jackings as people stop their cars at night. Killer. Was it as bad as the hype made out? not at all.

We arrived after a 4 hour bus, hopped in a cab to a hostel about 10 tube stops from town (safer that way, ain't it) and checked in. Still just me, sam and dave. Sam got seperated from us, cos she had to sleep in an all-girls dorm (her worst nightmare) so we decided to head into town to grab a drink. I'm a bit nervous about going "into town" at night, in a big city that we have just arrived in, but dave talked us into it, and we rounded up another dude and went for a drink. 20 minutes later, we were on the main street of bars and restaurants, lapping up the atmosphere and tucking into steak. Our first of two nights passed without problem. Only one left.



In the morning we headed into town on the subway - which across the city is a flat characterless series of concrete rooms and tunnels underground - and spent the day exploring the city. There's almost nothing to do here from what we found - shops yes, market stalls selling tat from poundland yes - but nothing much in terms of parks, architecture or beauty. The most exciting event of the morning was when the market sellers in the streets start whistling to each other because the police are approaching, and throw all their stuff into bags or wrap them in blankets and pretend they aren't breaking the law for five minutes until the police leave. That stuff was wicked.

We bombed around the cathedral too, where I spotted a women kissing a statue of some monk holding a curtain. I love catholics.



   

We'd heard you can go to the top of the highest building in Sao Paulo, but only if you are staying at the hotel, so we snuck into reception, pretending to be residents, and took the wrong lift to a residential floor. Despite being stupidly obvious that we didn't stay there, they let us climb the 42 floors anyway and the views, whilst pretty dull, were the highlight of Sao Paulo.



   

We'd heard that Mark, from Paraty, was headed to sao paulo, so we gave him a call and met him that night for a drink. He was staying with two wicked paulenese girls, Maria and Shakira (no really, Shakira), and we sank some beers and chatted to some passing locals who took a shine to sam. A tube ride later and a fond farewell to Sam's beau Dave, we grabbed 4 hours sleep before our flight to Buenos Aires.