Blogs from São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, South America - page 8

So this past weekend I went to São Paulo and I stayed with Douglas' brother, his wife Maristela, and their son Diego who is my age. In Brazil, people usually live at home while they go to college and don't usually move out of their parents' house until they get married. I can't understand why they don't want to get out and be independent. They can't understand why I'd want to give up cleanliness and home-cooked meals and free rent, and I.....ok I think they might be onto something. ANYWAY: I had an awesome weekend. Friday morning I got up early and explored downtown Campinas with Sonia (and the BEAUTIFUL cathedral that I forgot to take my camera to). Then I went to the hospital with the dogs and had to go back to the Mental ... read more

Hey guys! Kayaking was lots of fun, luckily no capsizing disasters! Gave our arms a good little work out too, stretched out the arms later in the bar with our free capriniahs to ensure no aching arms the next day... just aching heads!! We attempted to get a bus to see the waterfalls the next day, however just missed it and took a bus to Trinidade instead where there was another beautiful bay and long white beach. We woke up early Wednesday to get our last breakfast on the beach before going to get the bus to Sao Paulo. We arrived around 6pm yesterday and took the Metro across town to Solange´s apartment. Solange is one of Alans family friends who lives in Sao Paulo and has been kind enough to put us up for a ... read more

It has been the plan for some time to skip quickly through Brazil. There are notions of another trip that would give greater respect and time to the world's 5th largest nation. Such a trip might, or might not, swing through the Caribbean, have a look at Venezuela, Guyana and Surinam, then take in a World Cup game or two and have a better look at Brazil, perhaps duck over to Malvinas/Falklands and even have a bit of a poke about in Antarctica with a little hiking in Torres del Paine to round things out. This time there were just two items on the agenda: check out Iguacu Falls and then get ourselves smartly over to Sao Paulo to catch planes. So we have certainly not given Brazil anything more than a glance. After 6 months ... read more

Well we are back in Australia after the most amazing holiday. We have been very lucky to have experienced all that we have and did. We had a really interesting trip home. After leaving Sao Paulo in Brazil, flying out at 5.40pm on the Wednesday, we arrived in Santiago, Chile. Before our departure time to Auckland, there was an announcement that our flight was cancelled until Friday. However, a short while later we found out that LAN Airlines was trying to arrange another solution. This change was due to the volcanic ash from the Chile volcano that was creating havoc for all airlines scheduling, particularly around the NZ area. After a 3 hour wait, we boarded the plane to fly back to Australia via Tahiti. After 9 or so hours, we arrived there only to sit ... read more

I spent the last week of my trip in São Paulo, the richest city of Brazil. I had a great time, got to see big parts of this huge city, tried a lot of different food (Patty, I'll need a list with the names!), enjoyed all these great, fresh, colourful fruits, went dancing samba and sertanejo, made Brazilian friends, tried to survive with my 10 Portuguese words (I can read a lot in Portuguese, but why does it have to sound so differently when people speak?!?), and spent the weekend on the farm of Patty's family, 2h away from the city, where we drank caipirinhas, and enjoyed the sun and the amazing landscape. I can't talk about Brazil since I saw only one city, but I can say that São Paulo is different from everything I've ... read more