Blue Tree Berrini Sao Paulo

Well today was always going to be the most arduous of my entire trip and so it proved to be! It took 31 hours to get from Foz do Iguacu to Paraty including a 3 hour lay over in Sao Paulo. Not even enough time for a pilgrimage to Interlagos!

The traffic jams in SaoPaulo take some beating and our guide was a bit edgy about taking us out of the bus station telling ...

Everybody told me "why are you going to Sao Paolo, there is nothing to see" but it is wrong. Thanks to Clarissa I have had such a great time, met lovely people, ate yummy brazilian food and saw beautiful places. The city has a very european flair and its trendy.

... islands – we used the time to top up out tans and splosh about in the wonderfully clear waters. After that (and another quick dash to the shops by Alice and Fi) it was time to catch another bus, this time a 2 hour journey to Angra. It was our bumpiest ride yet, the excitement aided by the ridiculous speed at which our driver rattled along. Fortunately, the views were so spectacular that they helped to take our minds off the whiplash.
From Angra we caught a catamaran to Ilha ...

... mogli odswiezyc i odpoczac z dala od lotnicka (inaczej mowiac zebysmy im dali spokoj z wiecznumi pytaniami kiedy cos bedzie wiadomo). Mialam okazje dzieku temu zobaczyc kawalek Sao Paulo bo hotel byl okolo 20 minut jazdy autobusem.

Na miescu dostalismy cos do jedzenia i czekalismy z niecierpliwoscia na jakies wiesci z lotniska. Okazalo sie ze wsrod ludzi oczekujacych ...

... just use `whence´ in a sentence(second time this week in fact!).
I managed to sleep and thankfully after about 2 hours so did the rowdys around me. Woke up (well, many times due to complete discomfort) but woke at the breakfast stop at 6.05am... back on the bus and the new `bezzie mates´ had just purchased 3 bottles of cachaca and had their first shots at 6.30AM!!!!
It was gonna be a loooooong journey and by this time we had only done 15 ...

... all in Portuguese too. Well done me! My friend Fernando picked me up from the regional airport and drove me back to their place which is where I´d be staying a night. I met Fernando & Thiago in Rio last year, and were brilliant friends there and we´ve kept in touch since. They were living there at the time, but have since moved back to Sao Paulo. Last time I was in Brazil, I didn´t come to SP - mainly because it´s a huge big city with no beach ...

... should have taken this as a sign. There were plenty more price shocks to come. Driving into the centre I have to say it was one of the ugliest cities i have ever been in. Everything was dirty and dull and surrounded by a smog. But i was determined to be open minded. I couldnt hate the first place on my RTW trip! We got dropped of at Republica and started to make our way in what we thought was the ...

We were up and atom for the 10:30am ferry which promptly left at 10am hoping to catch everyone off guard. Only reason we got to the port early was due to the eagerness of our hostesses to turf us out to clean our stupendous pad. We bade fairwell to the magic of Ilha Grande and hoped it would stay that way for ever, under developed. As we sped away upon the ferry, there was time for a mid morning kip before hitting the mainland once again. Back on ...

28AUG/MON We gave up the apartment at 5:15pm. The Van picked us up at 5:45pm and we reached JFK at 6:30pm. But we were tagged 'special' and were given the 'special' treatment-which was a thorough security check. How lucky. 29AUG/TUE The flight was ok, slept on and off. Touched down at 9am. Again we were given the 'special' and was selected to be checked. Luckily our ...

... und Minibarwasserflasche an der Rezeption bezahlen und dann auch schon zum Flughafen fahren. Nur gut, dass ich Carolina vorgestern gefragt hatte, ob das Hotel weiss, dass Schering die Unterkunft bezahlt - es wusste davon natürlich nichts. Und nun sitze ich als hier - mit meinem wirklich nun letzten Geld (die restlichen 5 Reais kommen mit nach Deutschland) hab ich mir noch eine Newsweek gekauft, die ich jetzt gleich anbrechen werde. Ein schönes Wochenende und viele liebe Grüsse, Rinne :)