Our first full day in Sao Paulo and due to the disappointment of last night we decided to use the Guide book we had to find a nice place for lunch along with cultural things to do. The guidebook suggested we go to a Market held in a “Neoclassical Building” it was said to be a great place for lunch. We headed out and Neil was able to be confident in buying train tickets now, and we managed to move easily around the city with the use of their tube system. In our usual way we found the market....always walking more then we need to and should ignore the map and follow the signs. It was huge, with stalls filled with herbs, fruit, veg, meat, sweets, nuts etc. We went to Raful (an Arab resturant) had a actual meal with vegtables and Falafel. (I know it sounds like we are insane but really the food in Brazil is poor). We then happened to notice a group of paps following a woman, no idea who she was but everyone around us seemed excited. She was holdimng babies, kissing them, speaking to families and so we thought....POLITICIAN. Neil decided to snap away just so we didn't seemed like complete tourists.
After lunch we though we would head to the museum but again we followed the guide book rather then the signs and passed some savoury parts of the neighbourhood “some women wear hardly any clothes”. We arrived at the museum which looked lovely but it was shut...no comment in the guidebook on opening hours. We decided to head to the city centre where we went to the cathedral ..nothing to write home about and again some TV crew and presenter was there filming and trying to get the tramps out of shot. We then looked around, I bought a bag (as mine broke at Heathrow Airport even before we left the country!!) headed to a cafe to have a drink and watch the people go by. That night we decided that we wouldnt have another night of hunting for some decent food and decided to head to the supermarket and cook for ourselves. I missed cooking so thought “what the hell”. We managed to but vegtables, beans and rice and went back to the hostel to cook.
24th August
This was our last day in Sau Paulo and so we checked out of the hostel (left our bags there as we were getting the bus overnight to Foz du Iguacu that night) and headed back tot he musuem that was closed yesterday, we got there in no time at all (YAY) and went to be cultured with modern art and what South America see as their classical and native art.
We when headed to Liberdade (the Asain quarter) if the town, it a bit like Chinatown in London and went to have lunch there, however again the place the guidebook recommended was shut...us and luck hey.
In the afternoon we headed to a cafe and had some drinks, worked out our plan for the next day and wrote more postcards...people sorry you may not get them for a few weeks as we have to work out stamps and asking for them etc.
Got back to hostel, got bags and headed to the bus station. Got on bus...excellent space, comfy, recline...fab. However not looking forward to the 14 hour overnight journey. We thought we were lucky as no one was sitting in front of us...but again we were wrong the bus stopped at another 3 local bus stops and picked up more people., the local seem to bring blankets, pillows, jumpers and more, which made me nervous as I had was a shawl and cardigan and Neil has nothing but the shirt (short sleeved) he brough with him. It was fine though if not noisy with all the people coughing.
And so our 14 hours jouney to Foz du Iguacu continued.
25th August
As morning started to come and things got a bit lighter I got to see the landscape outside. It had changed a lot from the hilly, forested stuff we were used to and was now a lot flatter and more agricultural. Dawn was quite pretty – just solid orange colours across the sky. I could only half appreciate this as I was almost out of my mind with lack of sleep. I managed to get a few more snoozes in through the next few hours until it was too bright for anyone to sleep. As the morning went on, it became clearer that maybe we wouldn't be arriving at 11. It was eventually after 1 in the afternoon before we fnally stopped in Foz do Iguacu. We squeezed our aching bodies into a small taxi and I showed him my crudely drawn map of how to get to our hotel. He got us there no bother though, we got into the place and it was like we'd arrived in heaven. The first thing B did was put the hair dryer on. The first thing I did was look in the mini-bar. I went to the toilet and the seat was cushioned! It's generally just a nicer room than I've stayed in for years. Not bad for around 30 quid a night.
We chilled a bit, watched Eastenders on youtube, nipped out for a quick bite to eat, then rushed back to lie on the bed, have a beer and watch some (English) telly – OK it's only CSI but at least I understand what they're saying...
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