My first few hours after landing in South America I met two very nice girls from Sao Paulo in the hostel in Santiago, Zete and Margareth.
They got their camera stolen on their first day in Santiago and as it was the start of their trip I offered to lend them my underwater camera that I used in Tonga. I didnt really plan to go to Brazil at the start of the trip but as you can gather from my last blog it was the best decision I made so far on my travels.
I left Rio on Halloween night and headed to Sao Paulo and arrived in at 6am. Three hours later I was shooting paintballs at the Sao Paulo Police with Zete, Margareth and Anna giving me a hand. They were actually pretty impressed with my shooting skills after a few games. The first game I got a nice yellow paintball in the side of the head within two minutes and was first out, so I had a lot to prove.
The rest of my time in Sao Paulo was spent having a look around the city and chilling out between the hostel and Renato´s house (Zete´s friend).
I havent a word of Portuguese (pork and cheese as I call it) but the translation tools on the internet came in handy as I communicated through the computer with Zete and Margareths friend´s when they weren´t around.
It`s a experience to say the least when you go to a country and cannot speak a word of the language as I have found out numerous times. The simplest task becomes a major problem and the use of hand signals comes into play a lot which can be funny especially when your trying to tell someone that there´s no toilet roll in the bog :-)
Sao Paulo is the third or fourth most populated city in the world and if you think you have seen a traffic jam before then you want to check Sao Paulo out. I was suppose to leave on the Thursday night but the traffic was that bad that I missed the bus after three hours in the car. The next day Zete was leaving me to the bus and we left plenty of time but then had to abandon the car and jump on the metro to make the bus this time.
This entry is really to say a big thank you to my new friends in Sao Paulo, Renato, Vaguinho, Evandro, Vivi, Anna and Andrea for looking after me so well and making me feel just like I was at home.
Zete and Margareth have to get a special mention as they went out of there way to make me feel so welcome and their hospitality is second to none. They were my taxi drivers, translators and tour guides in Sao Paulo and went well beyond the call of duty.
Thank you sooooo much to everyone in Sao Paulo and I hope to see you all again soon.
Carnival in Salvador Anyone??? ;-)
