As is quite common in most countries Brazil also has their main city rivalry (of which city is the best). In Brazil this quarrel mainly plays out between the people of Sao Paulo, the Paulistas and the citizens of Rio de Janeiro, the Cariocas. The Paulistas are said to be jealous with the Cariocas for being handed all the cool and big events of the country, such as: - the annual ´Rock in Rio´ music festival; - the biggest games in the upcoming football world cup (in 2014); - and the upcoming Olympics in 2016, just to mention a few. For those Norwegians from Northern Norway that was engaged in the Olympic host city discussion a while ago (on whether Tromsoe or Oslo should apply for the Winter Olympics in 2018) that read this, should be able to sympathize with the situation of the Paulistas (which seems even more uneven). The Cariocas naturally prides themselves with these events and like to be perceived as the specialists in ´being cool´, partying and living life as it is supposed to be lived. The Cariocas laugh of the Paulistas, which allegedly always work and are too stressed out to have a good time. In the eyes of the Cariocas a Paulista might be rich, but he is definitely not cool.

The Paulistas on the other hand claims that the Cariocans are lazy. To put it more sharply they argue that the Cariocas are not even capable of delivering one day of solid honest work. Because of this slang phrases such as: ´I do not have time for a proper carwash today, just give me a carioca´ and ´I do not care for such a strong café today, just make it a carioca´, have emerged in Sao Paulo. Naturally some Paulistas, are Cariocas at heart. (Who does not want to be lazy all the time, right?) Others are clearly positioned on either side of the barrier and stereotypically continue to spread their experiences of why Cariocans are lazy, or Paulistas are too stressed out (we did, however, not meet any Cariocas who where Paulistas at heart). After living like Cariocas for one week, we went to Sao Paulo and hoped to experience the life as a Paulista.

In Sao Paulo we met up with Rafaela Montanaro (a true Paulista) and her husband Adriano Calcavante for 4-5 days. Rafaela is a professional pole dancer and won the South America Championship in 2012. Adriano works in some sort of consultancy firm which offers security advice and administrative support for other companies during company events. He works a lot (like the good Paulista he is), and his phone was constantly beeping during our stay there. Rafaela and Adriano visited Elise and Norway in autumn 2012 for a pole workshop Elise arranged. Seemingly they had a good time in Norway and now they seemed to be eager to return the favor.

In Sao Paulo we went to a Rock club the second night of our stay. A friend of Rafaela was DJ`ing for the first time in his career and we were promised VIP treatment if we showed up and supported him. As VIP´s we went passed the queue and met up with the owner of the club as well, who were full of tattoos and rings all over his face and arms. We were hanging out in the VIP section drinking whiskey and looking at the Brazilian Rock´n Roll enthusiasts digging to the different DJ´s Rock-mixing performance. Rafaela's friend played a bunch of classics - ranging from Led Zeppelin to more modern songs from Franz Ferdinand and the Strokes. All in all he must be seen as delivering quite a decent performance (baring in mind the presentation being his first). We went home sometime after midnight, as we were planning to head for Rafaela's family ranch the day after.

The Brazilian Rockers however seemed to continue further into the night, and as a side note should be mentioned that the latest fashion for women going to Rock clubs in Sao Paulo is to go around shirtless only with their breasts taped with black sports-tape. We saw 3-4 different girls that were slaves to this latest statement of fashion. To Elise´s disappointment we had only brought silver ´duc-teip´ from Norway to make improvised repairs on back packs or clothing if they should break, and I guess she concluded that it would have been to painful to pull a: ´do as the Romans' on this specific occasion.

As I said above when the weekend came we went to visit Rafaela`s father: Marcos, which owned a Ranch 30-40 minutes outside of Sao Paulo. By his friends the Ranch was casually referred to as Marcos´ playground consisting of tools and stuff for his Hobbies such as an International standardized Beach-volleyball-field, a pool and a stable with 5 horses. Marcos celebrated his birthday while we were there and during this weekend a bunch of family and friends were visiting the Ranch for a Brazilian BBQ - Churrasco, drinks and Beer.

The Churrasco was an impressive feast and we were eating and drinking like kings (Strangly enough opposed to what the stereotypical view of a Paulista should suggest?). After dinner we joined Marcos on a horseride and played a beach-volleyball-game with International mixed teams. Since Marcos´ brother was a former professional beach volleyball player and an olympics contestant most of the guests had been schooled well. Clearly in contrast the Norwegians were not and I guess there were some Brazilian jokes on our behalf, as one of Marcos´ friends always screamed out `Noruego` and pointed at me each time before he served. The jokes on the Norwegians seemed to be friendly and the party went out well into the evening with an unlimited amount of food and drink.

All in all the Paulista lifestyle did not fall short of our experience of the Cariocan way of life. I guess, however, that most backpackers don`t live a life like we did over this weekend, (perhaps not even most Paulistas). But based on our experience of the Paulista and Carioca way of life, I will give the reward to the Paulistas like Rafaela and Adriano.