Ilha Grande, Paraty and Sao Paulo
After the exceitment and wonders of Rio we headed south down the coast. Our first port of call was the town of Angra dos Reis, the boarding point for the boat across to Ilha Grande. We took a schooner across as the catamaran was out of action (not knowing that there was a ferry option as well) and we spent the 2 hours passing by numerous islands dotted with nice villas overlooking the sea. We spent two nights on the island and unfortunately the weather, which was perfect in Rio, never quite materialised. This was a shame as the island has some gorgeous beaches, including one which is rated amongst the nicest in the country (Lopes Mendes-in the pic) but without the sunshine it just wasnt quite the same. On our full day we went for a trek across part of the island, its pretty big and to trek all of it would take a couple of days. We headed up into the rainforest visiting a natural swimming pool and the remains of an old aquaduct before continuing up the mountain to a small waterfall with another swimming pool. Sadly I hadnt packed my trunks and so had to watch as others swam in the pools. After our couple of days on Ilha Grande we then went to the colonial town of Paraty. The trip down the coast (in fact all the way from Rio to Angra and then onward) is pretty nice. You hug the coastline for the majority and inland the mountains rise up from the beach, covered in the Atlantic Rainforest that once dominated the landscape. The weather in Paraty again wasnt great but its a UNESCO heritage site as its one of the best preserved towns in Brasil and you dont really need the sun to view the old buildings. The first thing you notice about the historic town, is the cobblestone roads. They are unbelievably uneven. The suspension on the carts the horses used to pull must have been incredible. The fort overlooking the bay is a bit disappointing but you can get right down the cliff face to the water from there and we were incredibly lucky in that we were able to watch a sea turtle feeding and coming up for air for a few minutes. The houses in Paraty are all in little terraced rows and are painted pure white other than the various colours bordering the windows and doors, reds, blues, yellows, greens and best of all the maroon ones! That night we went to a beach party with most of the people from our hostel. We had been drinking a variation of the Caipirinha, called a Gabriela named after the leading character of a famous Brasilian novel really nice and lethal. Paraty claims to be the home of the Caipirinha and every year there is a festival to celebrate this. The next day was was back to being gorgeous and we took the opportunity to walk round the town and see it in the sun. Its really pretty and there is lots to do in the area, tons of beaches, 4WD tracks, kayaking and boat trips. On to the monster that is Sao Paulo, it took us about an hour to get from the outter suburbs to the bus terminal. We spent a few days there visiting some of the cooler barrio´s like Jardim Paulista, where all the offices are and all the designer shops to go with them, the Japanese quarter or Japanatown as we called it and around Centro. Sadly there is not much history to see in Sao Paulo, all of the old buildings were knocked down when the gold rush of the 19th century occurred and since then most of these buildings have also been replaced, by skyscrapers. There is more skyscrapers in Sao Paulo than Ive had hot dinners. We visited the Italian Tower to get a view of the city and it just goes on and on with countless numbers of concrete towers reaching for the sky. If Alicia Keys thinks NYC is a concrete jungle then she should get herself to Sao Paulo. The best attraction that we visited, was the Estadio Pacaembu, the municipal ground in Sao Paulo and home to Corinthians and the National Futebol Museum. Its class, if you like football at all then you should definitely visit. There is exhibits on the great players of Brasilian football, all the World Cups, the legends of Pele and Garrincha an interactive section where you can measure the speed of you shot (107kph and 97kph for myself and Mike, not bad efforts I think) as well as other cool things to read about and see. Under the stand is a section where you can listen to the chanting of the fans when they score, its really well done and you can imagine being in the stand itself. The barrio we stayed in is pretty cool, Vila Madelena. There is a bar on every street corner and nightclubs to cater for most people. Sao Paulo is also a city made of immigrants from all round the globe which means that you can have food to suit any taste. Japanese, Arabic, Greek, Asian and many European dishes. The city has such a large Italian population, it even claims to have the best pizzas in the world. I can vouch for them being very good but I think we went to a Pizza Hut-esque restaurant and so I could imagine that a gourmet one would be awesome. Never been to Italy though so...Sao Paulo is a monster of a city, biggest in South America and I believe the 3rd in the world, the nightlife is ace but very very expensive and the food is pretty good too. A visit to the football museum is great but it lacks the spirit of Rio or the history of even somewhere small like Paraty. Overall though a couple of days visit would be worth it.