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Published: September 30th 2006
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The streets of old Paraty
Beautiful colonial buildings It was only a matter of time before my entries turned to talking about my stomach, and what I put in it! Both in Paraty and here in Sao Paulo I have eaten extremely well. I had three main meals in Paraty, and each was absolutely fabulous (if a little on the pricey side). It was a welcome change from the rather crap food we had eaten in Ilha Grande, and the food here in Sao Paulo has also been great so far.
I must explain about kilo restaurants, a common sight here in Brazil and one I would welcome seeing in the UK. They are, basically, self service restaurants that are laid out in canteen-style - sounds awful, I know, but the food is fabulous and I have found so much joy in being able to select little bits of whatever I fancy eating. So, you go in, take an empty plate, fill it with as much (or as little) as you like and then take it to the counter to be weighed and the amount you pay varies according to how heavy your plate of food is. There are different 'classes' of restaurant, which charge different amounts 'per
kilo', and most are comparatively cheap. They are also to be seen all over the place, so you never go hungry here in Brazil. Fabulous.
One word:
cakes. They have amazing cakes here in Brazil. Rich, gooey chocolate ones; ones filled with coconut; little petit four-type cake/biscuits . . . the list is endless. It is entirely possible that I may end up being the only traveller that returns home weighing more than she did when she left. Well, probably not actually, given that Asia is my last stop before home, but at least I'm putting the layers of insulation on before I reach Antarctica. Jeez. I simply cannot stop eating the things.
One more word:
fruit. My hostess here in Sao Paulo, Rosaly, (more about her in a minute) took me to a fruit and veg market on my first day in the city. I think the locals aren't used to seeing many tourists in this part of town and found it rather amusing and novel to feed me samples of the most wonderful fruit I've ever tasted, all the while asking me over and over again if we have fruit markets as good as this in
the UK. One of the men, upon hearing that I was from England, said 'ah, David Beckham country. I once played football with him, you know.' Hmm. But seriously, the fruit here is great. Somewhat naively coming from the UK, I assumed that there is only one type of banana. Oh, how wrong was I. There are at least 5 (or at least there was 5 in this market), they all taste different and none of them taste like the poor excuses for bananas that I have now realised we have in the UK. I will never eat a Sainsburys banana again. Oh, and pineapples, melons, oranges, apples, pears . . . you name it, they have it here and you can bet your life it tastes a damn sight better than back home. Sorry to make you all jealous. Getting my five portions a day here is a real pleasure. And seriously cheap. I spent about 5 reais at this market, which is between one and two pounds, and I have enough fruit to last me a week.
Anyway, enough of food and onto some slightly different rambling. Paraty was beautiful: a lovely, colonial old town situated on
Me on the 'Tarzan bridge'
This was really scary! But I went cachaca tasting afterwards, which made me feel better! the coast between Rio and Sao Paulo. I spent three days there in a slightly smelly dorm room in an HI
pousada (B&B). Again, the weather wasn't amazing but it was a great place all the same. The old part of town reminded me a little of Hastings' Old Town, or at least what it would look like if Hastings upped and moved to South America. I loved it. Little shops alternately full of touristy rubbish and beautiful jewellery and trinkets; yummy restaurants; really friendly locals (they are friendly everywhere in Brazil); it was a great place to hang out for a couple of days. My lasting memory of Paraty, however, was experienced on Sunday evening, as I was sat in the entrance to the old town, waiting to meet Chris and Emma for dinner. On one side of the street was a church with people crowded outside, singing along to the dodgy recording of a hymn. On the other side of the street, directly opposite the church, was a little cafe with men crowded outside, watching a TV screen with the footie on. The two religions of Brazil: God and football. It is often difficult to ascertain which one
they worship more.
So on Monday I left Paraty and travelled the 6 hours to Sao Paulo. First impressions were not good: the words 'concrete hellhole' sprang to mind as the bus entered the city. I am couchsurfing here with a lady called Rosaly, who is a fabulous, vivacious woman in her 50's, going on 30. She's great fun, up for a laugh, enjoys life and all it's natural riches and is a very generous person. She has shown me round the local area and taken me out to lunch, and generally welcomed me into her home (which is a very smart apartment in the reasonably upmarket
Pinheiros area of the city), and I am eternally grateful to her. Her English is really good - she is an English teacher here. I have also met up with Barry, an English guy who lives here that I met while I was in Rio, and he has taken me out to various places in the city as well. Yesterday we spent a fabulous afternoon in a gallery called the
Pinacoteca, home to some great exhibitions of Brazilian art and photography. I also went to a salsa/merengue club with him, his girlfriend
and her friend on Wednesday night and I had a grand old time, dancing with a number of different Brazilian men and drinking
mojitos, my new drink of choice. Yum.
This should make the teachers back home feel a little better about their lot: the teachers here are paid horrifically badly and although all children should go to school, not all do, as is evidenced by walking the streets during school hours. It is a sad state of affairs. I have spoken to Rosaly about the politics of her country fairly frequently during my stay, especially as it is the country's national elections on Sunday, so it is a topic at the forefront of everyone's mind. She thinks that the government wish to 'keep people stupid' so they can be more easily manipulated. It is a tense political situation, one which will undoubtedly come to a head on Sunday when they have to vote. All residents here over the age of 18 are obligated to vote, or they have to pay a fine. This means that obviously the percentage of voters is incredibly high (particularly in comparison to England), but people genuinely don't know who to vote for because
pretty much everyone (or at least everyone with enough money to run a decent campaign and therefore the ones most likely to win) is unbelievably corrupt. Politics here are complicated, as I guess they are everywhere, and I won't even begin to go into it now. But suffice to say that this week particularly has been an interesting time to come here.
There isn't an amazing amount to do as a tourist here in Sao Paulo, but because of the people I have met and hung out with it has been a great experience. Each time I have left somewhere, I've been more affected by the people I'm leaving rather than the place itself. The places that have been the hardest to leave so far have been those with the people that I have connected with the most. Sao Paulo will be hard to leave for this reason - I will miss Rosaly and Barry enormously. But I still have the weekend here before I head to Curitiba on Monday, and I intend to enjoy it!
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jan
non-member comment
good to hear your news
Really enjoy getting your blogs and finding out what u r up to. I'm still recovering from my week in Ibiza trying to keep up with Dash (27) I managed but I'm paying for it now!!! Party, swim, dance, walk, clubbing, Poker, swim - or and back to your topic - lots of lovely food! hope to catch you on your travels next year! Jan