Punta del diablo en URUGUAY and Brasil - Floripa and Sao Paulo

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Been a while - couple of weeks since I have found time to sit down at a computer and get my thoughts down. I am now in Sao Paulo Brasil - mega city of Brasil and the major middle class commerce city as well. It may not be by the beach like Rio and the Paulistas may have a workacholic reputation but I think it has its charms.

Anyway I´ll rewind a little bit. About 2 weeks ago I left the comfort of my apartment and boyfriend in Montevideo to travel North East to places that I´d heard were great on the Atlantic coast of Uruguay -namely Punta del Diablo. On the way I decided to stop in at La Paloma as the backpackers looked alright. It ended up being pretty boring with only 4 other people staying there and most of the town was shut so I had nothing to do expect walk up and down the main street, read the biography of Evo Morales in Spanish and drink mate....After getting a little cabin fever I rang up a couch surfer couple who lived in La Paloma and asked them what they were doing tonight and if thery´d like to have dinner together. Ceci said yes of course and that she´d pick me up on way home from the fancy town of Punta del Este where she works - Yay. I ended up cooking for them - Ratatoille (however it´s spelt) and we had great conversation in Spanish about all sorts of things including that they want to move to New Zealand next year, and own a nice resturant in punta del Este called Fork that regularly has celebrities in summer and also a pool and sun beds - bliss! I was thinking about leaving the following day but they convinced me to stay and gave me the use of their second aparment at the back and cooked me chicken crepes the next night! They also advised me to head to Cabo Polonio for something to do - a giant sand dune with a hippy community living out there with no power but heaps of lobos del mar (sea lions). It was pretty cool - took an hour bus out there, then another 30min 4x4 out to the community. I didn´´t know anyone so ended up befriending these Columbian Volcanologist chicks who I walked with - lucky cos one had been before and knew what to go see in the two hours we had before the last bus back. We saw amazing colourful little shacks in the dunes - for historic reasons no new construction can be made so people just paint the old houses new colours. One even had a photo on the outside of grass and a cow munching on it...

Next I went to Punta del diablo - a little isolated pinisula about an hour from Brasil which has great beaches for surfing, cute little fish resturaunts, and a park to trek in nearby. I loved the backpackers too - Diablo tranquilo. Met a cool Canadian guy who was travelling south america while his house was rented in Canada for winter olmpics, and even two kiwi couples - crazy 5 kiwis under one roof!

Then I bussed the long way from Montevideo to Florianapolis in Brasil (19 hours). Met a couple on the bus on their honeymoon - Aussie girl and Brasilian guy - that had lived in New Zealand - wellington in fact for 2 years (a year ago). I hung out with them at stops and they were real nice and helpful - I was a bit scared as did not speak portuguese and didn´t know much of brasil...The brasilian guy also said he loves kiwis and thinks we´re way better than aussies - haha. They´re living in Aus now though..

When I got to Floripa I was met by Glauco - a guy who´d been at the same backpackers I lived in in Blenheim 5 years ago. I wasn´t sure we had met before but my friend Ricardo (and his friend) asured me I had and said I should stay with him. It ended up being a great week. His flatmate didn´t speak English so I had to improvise with a mix of Spanish and Portuguese which I got rapidly better at as the week progressed (TV works wonders). The city of Floripa is mainly an islans with about 40 different beaches and 300, 000 people, lots of native forest too and lagoons. I had the use of the bike so ventured down to the north of the island - pretty rural with farms and then forest and boast and colourful resturaunts. I also went on a lagoon walk where i saw a giant lizard - I later heard the story about how it attacked a friend of Glaucos when he tried to make a bbq and scare it off. Apparently they lunge at you! late rin week I found out another friend from the backpackers in NZ - Laize was back in town and I caught up with her over coffe in Lagoa Conceicao, and later went to Praia Mole - beautiful secluded beach with bars and huts for drinks and coconuts you can sip água de coco´from. Also went to 2 Brazilian bbqs - churrascu in portugues and enjoyed some ice cold beers and slow cooked goat, as well as other yummy sasages and meats and bread. Most people here I´ve met know of NZ and saw really good things and welcome me - many have friends working there. I´ve found brasilians to be really open and friendly and even if you say I do not speak portuguese they will keep talking to you (sometimes good, sometimes not).

The lady on the bus to Sao Paulo when I said I don´t speak portugues replied after 15 minutes of conversation - see you do! but I say it´s portonol - I´m not trying to learn it´s just rubbing off on me. I just hope I can untangle the spanish later when I get to Bolivia.
Anyway got to Sao Paulo and they lovely lady on the bus let me use her phone to call Ricardo and showed me where the metro was. I got to Ricardo´s house easily on the metro and he has a great apartment with his mum - I even get my own room as his brother is overseas - score! We had a good catch up on all the goss later that day - he is now engaged and other friends of ours are married and stuff or have different jobs or are in different countires. by the way this was over a all you can eat sushi lunch! score. later I walked avieneda Paulista - centre of commerce and went to MASP museam - free day and good photography and graffiti art. The next day after researhing a bit on SP I went to Centro to see the municipal mercardo where they sell everything - every exotic fruit you´ve never seen, and every type of nut, cheese, vege, olive etc...supposed to be a dogdy area - bit of a black market outside but i felt safe ans was curious as to why there were hords of policemen around...later visited Liberdade neighbourhood which is the asian region and i ate some great Japanese food - sushi again at a resturaunt! today - my third day I accompanied my friend Ricardo on a ´live transmission´of a infomercial for a toy compony - he is kind of a director and creative writer. was pretty interesting expect had to wake up at 5am! takes a lot of prep time but I got to chat to his collegues in my portenol and later saw a tour of his work and ate a typical Brazilian lunch that was provided there (beans, rice, beef jerky and salad). Muito satifieta! Speaking with some of his collegues some of them were shocked to learn I am travelling alone and intend to go to Rio but hey I heard I saying - if you live with fear it´s like only half-living - and I reackon it´s true. I´m probably only going to be here once to I may as well visit these places and so far I´ve found Brasil very safe if you keep an eye on where you´re going and blend in.

more on Rio, Parati (beaches) and Patanal (nature area near amazon) next entry...

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