I woke with a dead leg, then the pins and needles kicked in. Owe, owe, owe. I looked out the window trying to distract my brain and was shocked by what I saw. We'd fell asleep leaving an island full of beaches; surrounded by the ocean. We were driving through mountainous jungle. We were so high the mist was all around and it looked so dreary.
We knew we were near São Paulo when the traffic increased. We could see a huge city ahead. On the way into the city we drove past so many do it your self towns; homes that have been constructed with whatever material they could find. It looks more shabby because there's so much litter scattered everywhere.
We've noticed this everywhere we've been in South America. Rubbish is left to blow around and litter fields, roads, parks.... Even in rural towns with few houses litter is everywhere.
We crawled through the traffic, on the bus and finally pulled into the bus terminal. Apparently this is the 2nd largest bus terminal in the world. It was huge. We found our way to the platform we needed for the train. That wasn't an easy task... Because São Paulo is a huge city we'd been warned that there is a lot of theft so keep an eye on your bag at all times and never look like you don't know where your going (even if you haven't a clue). With this in mind I was freaking out. We'd arrived at 9am and the train ticket booth was swarmed with people. We knew where we had to go but we didn't know where to get a ticket. When we found the ticket booth the language barrier came in again. A man next to us spoke English so he jumped in and helped. Lee was calm, looking around, strolling along and I was like a loon 'come on Lee', 'look like you know where your going'. I thought i was coping well until a man on the train got in-between me and my backpack. He was really nice and swapped places with my bag. As he was getting off he said 'in the subways do not let go of your bag'. Well I had a little panic attack that lasted until we arrived at the hostel... 'you keep an eye on my bag too', 'are you looking at my bag?', 'are you sure your watching my back?'... The directions said once off the train turn right, left then right and walk straight. Sounds easy well... They didn't mention the 'walk straight for a mile up and down hills dragging your huge backpack whilst on high alert for potential thieves'. We arrived unscathed and went straight to the reception. No early check in but there was luggage storage. We left our bags and walked around a small amount of São Paulo. We crossed the grid locked road full of traffic into narrow streets with highly secure apartments and swanky designer shops. We stopped at a huge Havaiana shop. I saw a cool little pair of Havaianas for Harribo. I picked authentic looking Brazilian ones.
We were hungry and seen a sushi place. I miss my big Aussie sushi rolls and Brazil is meant to have really nice sushi so we went in. No one spoke English or Spanish and we didn't pronounce our little Portuguese correctly because it was a struggle to order. The food finally came, not what we'd ordered but nice. Blinking expensive and we were still hungry. It was nearly 2pm so we decided to head back to the hostel to check in and get a shower. On the walk back we spotted a tiny little bakery. Lee opted for a mini green iced eclair. I went with a mini chocolate mouse. Wow another taste sensation!
When we got we checked into our 8 bed dorm. First impressions: marvellous full of smelly boys who were still in bed at 2pm! It was a small room, 4 bunked beds, all the bottom beds were taken so I had to climb the mountain of a ladder onto my top bed. We just got showered and went straight back out. After walking around we bought tea and headed back to cook. The bar wasn't open and there was a weird atmosphere in the hostel. So after we'd eat we went back to the room.