Sao Paulo, Santos & Paranapiacaba - Feb. 2010

---

We didn't spend nearly enough time in Sao Paulo city, but did go up in a tall building with a lookout to fully appreciate it's massive size. The buildings seemed to go on forever. We also visited a huge urban park called Ibirapuera. It was beautiful and busy with people enjoying a beautiful Saturday afternoon. We also drove around Sao Paulo a few times at night. Very nice city with a happening club district. I'll have to return. We didn't even get a chance to explore the Japanese, Lebanese, and other ethnic neighbourhoods which I'm sure are fascinating and full of some amazing restaurants.

We stayed with a friend in Ribeirao Pires during most of our stay in Sao Paulo state. We took a road trip to Santos for a day, which was great. The drive itself was beautiful, especially as you get closer to Santos and glimpse views of the city from the mountain highway. Our friend is a huge Santos soccer fan, so we visited the Santos stadium and museum. We spent the remainder of the afternoon on the beach. The water was shallow in warm, in stark contrast to the beaches in Rio, which get deep quick and had unusually cold water while we were there. Santos is the largest port city in Brazil, so you can watch the huge shipping container boats coming in from the beach. Which made me think that the water must be pretty polluted, but that doesn't stop everyone from swimming anyway. After the beach we drove up to this lookout, where you can also take a cable car up to. Absolutely magnificent.

Paranapiacaba was another little road trip we did. It's this old colonial town built by the British. While there, our friend bought us this liquor called Cambuci - we got to taste test three different types. It's made from a weird fruit I've never heard of before, but it's good.

---