We arrived in Sao Paulo as the sun was going down and the city was cast in a beautiful orange but we couldn't appreciate it because we'd been messing around on the subway for about an hour and half trying to go two stops. It was three hours after we arrived when we finally trudged into the hostel, exhausted. After checking into our first private room in what felt like weeks we headed up to the bar for a beer and x-burger. Then we noticed the Pisco, and with the Brazilian barman not having heard of a Pisco Sour, Em felt the need to turn barman and made what could have been the worst drink I've ever had!

The next morning we went for a walk round the downtown area. There was even more tagging than in Rio, lots of great buildings and the people seemed nicer - for some reason - maybe I just wasn't so ill. Anyway, we instantly took a liking to the place. For all the tagging there was even more excellent quality graffiti than Rio and in general it seemed that Sao Paulo had more raw style than Rio or anywhere we'd been to since leaving Japan.

We were also struck by the amount of old men employed to wear sandwich boards - so we took a few snaps in the hope that we might find out one day what they were advertising, but mainly because it seemed so weird. Then the heavens opened and we somehow managed to find shelter in an ice cream shop. Em declared their ice creams one of the best she'd ever had! Again. I hear that pretty much once a week.

Had some more luck in randomly arriving at Edificio Italia in the only hour of the day during which you are allowed a free view of the city from the 41st floor. That is, without having to buy a cocktail or wear trousers and shoes. We were lucky enough to watch the thunderstorm in progress over the city, the photos don't do it justice of course but it was awesome.

The general idea was to 'go out' in Sao Paulo but everything good was mega expensive and the rest not really worth the hassle. So we ended up taking a tip from the hostel clerk and headed to a famous jazz bar round the corner. On the way we stopped for dinner at an Afro South American food place, not quite a restaurant, but they had a table which was made available for us to eat at. Again we were back to pointing at pictures on the wall to make our choice and in the end we went for the old faithful, we shared a 'meal for one' of steak, rice, chips, egg and refried beans with salad.

Afterwards we walked another couple of blocks to the bar - it looked good from the outside, live jazz etc. But in order to get into some bars in Sao Paulo/Brazil you have to pay a minimum for drinks and in this place it was about 200 reals. So we turned on our heels and took a stroll through one of the roughest places in Brazil we'd been, so far! Stepping carefully over tramps sleeping across the pavement as we went.

Next morning we did what we have now decided is our favourite thing - we went to the park. The park we went to was huge and had a few museums and a big undercover area where gangs of kids hang out. There was a bike gang, a skate board gang and very small inline skate gang. They were definitely worth watching for a while, and a we took few photos before heading up to the modern art museum, MASP.

We got in half price with our international student cards and spent a good few hours looking at the amazing collection. They also had a massive display set up in the auditorium with about 100 plasma screens around the walls - each had a collection of one minute videos. On the way home to our poor area we took a very long walk home through a rich area, and had dried fish and over-cooked veg for dinner.

Next morning we went down to San Benedict church to hear the Gregorian monks. They were excellent but the service showed no sign of stopping after an hour so we made an escape while everyone else queued up for mass. We didn't have a chance to take a photo of the the statue of St Bartholemew "the beheader". We went to the market to buy a Santos shirt and finally found some nice food. But out of it all we only managed to order a poxy cheese and tomato pasty . It was tasty but on top of the all those x-burgers we were really looking forward to getting down to Argentina.

On the way back, I managed to navigate us through Se which we had been to quite a few times on the subway. It was good to see what it actually looked like. It had an impressive looking church and the plaza itself unoffically provides homes for quite a few people so you wouldn't go there at night. Oh yes, I wince I say this, but on entering the square we did see a man kick a pregnant woman in the stomach.

That night we went to watch Portuguesa v Ponte Preto. We had a mini adventure on the way when we got lost in a poor part of town. We came across a fiesta based around a five a side pitch. They had a band and stalls etc. We think it had something to do with it being Women's Day. We sat down for few minutes to try to work out where we were, and eat a pasty. Em says to everyone that I got freaked out by a small boy who wanted to talk to me with his face about an inch from mine and said I looked Peruvian. Why would that freak me out?! We were up for sticking around for a bit as it looked like they were about to kickoff a game of five-a-side but as the clock was ticking for kick off at the Portuguesa stadium on we went.

When we finally got to the ground it was pretty quiet but there was a great atmosphere. Really musical singing and drumming and cheerleaders but shocking football. It was like watching Newcastle v Blackburn except worse! I remember about 5 minutes of good play. The home side did have a goal disallowed in the first half which might have changed the game for the better but at least we got to see why they needed to build a moat around the Officials' entrance to the pitch. At half time the ref and the linesmen had to be escorted off the pitch by riot police! But the home team managed to squeeze out a goal with about ten minutes left and won, thank god. On the way back the away side bus didn't take kindly to one home fan who we think must have been goading them. Him and his girlfriend got pelted with beer cans and someone stuck his finger up at us! All very hairy - we walked quickly back to the station. We decided against the detour to check out the football/woman's days/barbecue. We had to be up at 3am to catch our flight and Em had school the next day in Buenos Aires.