Blogs from São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, South America

Day 1: Just got to the hotel and am heading down for a quick sweat after just shy of 24 hours of traveling. Sao Paulo is known as the Rainy City and the Gods must want an authentic experience for me because it's been sprinkling lightly since we landed. It's a crowded city, 27 million people, and I'm excited to eat (probably why I went straight to the gym) some authentic Brazilian fare as the city is famous for their gastronomical awesomeness. Check in for the APEX Gran Prix looks amazing and although I don't follow race car driving normally I am definitely a fan of all things sexy, fast and that can corner on a dime. We are having dinner Terraca Teatro which is a beautiful restaurant 40 or so stories above the city overlooking ... read more

Bom, já avisei a todos que eu não gosto muito de escrever. Mas este blog tem o intuito de dizer onde estou e que estou viva. Agora o compromisso é grande de postar pelo menos um "Oi" aqui no blog. Gostaria apenas de relatar que o meu período sabático já começou. Desde o momento que consegui me desligar efetivamente do banco (30/04/12) a minha cabeça está 100% nesta minha viagem. O tempo está voando o que aumenta ainda mais a ansiedade, mas Ok, tudo dentro do 'planejado'. O que não foi planejado são as pessoas que pessoas eu conheci e estou conhecendo. Cada história!! De verdade, isto não tem preço!! Já levo comigo um pedacinho de cada uma delas e a motivação de saber que existem pessoas que nasceram para erradiar o Bem. Eita .. logo ... read more

Pulling up to the ferry port on front of the Mercado Modelo was definitely the most scenic way to arrive to Bahia's capital, Salvador. Myself and my travel companions, Mary and Till, said our farewells to our tour group, CruzTheCoast, that we had travelled north from Rio de Janeiro with, and made our way to our hostel for the next four days, Galeiria 13. We were greeted with smiles and an abundance of information from the very friendly, sincere owner, Paulo. After our 11 days of constant packing and unpacking, Salvador’s only hostel with a pool was a welcome break. I couldn’t rave enough about this hostel, with the excellent internet access, a huge breakfast spread (with eggs on request) and the moroccan themed tv and lounge room, it gave us little reason to go exploring. ... read more

Hey Guys! What's up? On this second post we will tell you about how we went to NYC and some good stuffs that happened for this! How we were so blessed to bought the tickets and on a sales day! I (Alinne) was working on a holiday week, when all my job's friends were at a workshop, i think that it was in the end of January or in the middle of Feb, before the Brazilian Carnival... I was looking for some sales tickets, when i found an interesting Brazilian web site called as "Best Destinations'' (http://www.melhoresdestinos.com.br) , this site gave us information about all the sales tickets for those who lives in Brazil and the do it for free. Before that, some weeks ago, we were thinking about our vacations, where it could be, what ... read more

Hello friends and family, Just a short blog here. After a week of dancing and living it up at carnival we were in need of some well deserved rest so we move closer towards the centre of Salvador to a backpackers near the beach. A couple of days on the beach and some sleep-ins gave us the energy we needed to fly down to Rio. Rio is an amazing city. The contrasts between humans and the environment were one of our first thoughts. Here is a city that has massive slums right next door to 5 star hotels, beautiful beaches backing onto jungle covered mountains, backpackers with homeless and the rich and famous. We made our way to ipanema beach and to our hostel where we met up with some of frans friends. We spent four ... read more

A megalopolis. That is the only befitting way to describe the cityscape of São Paulo (Sampa to the locals). Seen from the air, my mind boggled as I saw the skyscrapers shooting up from the earth with such density that they could not be distinguished from one another. Mexico City is the largest expanse of land I have seen taken over by buildings from the vantage point of an aeroplane, but in terms of skyscrapers, São Paulo surely has no peer. To try and clarify this image, in the week I spent there, I never saw a single house, only skyscrapers and apartment blocks. The business district, intersected by Avenida Paulista, is like walking through a Tetris landscape. This is not to say that I did not enjoy my time there, far from it. I was ... read more

Day 122 Friday 10th February Jumped out of bed and went to breakfast about 7.00am for the last time in Curitiba as we are off to Sao Paulo today. We did the final packing, paid the hotel bill and were out the door and into a taxi to the bus station. In Brazil so far the bus tickets have the platform number so we know where exactly to stand, unlike Argentina that gives you a range so you have to keep an eye open. The security to get on the bus was the same as Foz with us having to show our passports to get on. This bus was very nice with plenty of leg room and the air conditioning running all the time, which is a bonus on a crowded bus on a ... read more