Ola from sweaty Sao Paulo,

SO lets start from the airport..... after a bit of confusion surrounding the location of Terminal 5 we finally arrived and checked in to be met with a very tricky dilemma. The guy at check-in offered a choice to put ourselves on a list and that if selected we would receive 600 euros each plus accommodation in a hotel if we were selected to be removed from the flight... Obviously we umm-ed and arr-ed over what to do but being as the next flight to Sao Paulo would have been the following evening and we really wanted to go we followed the greats like Kaka and decided money isn't everything deciding to opt out.

Terminal 5 is incredible and so was our last meal in the UK for 6 months, hats off to chef Ramsay. Pork Belly and Pork Cutlets for myself and no guessing what Chloe had yup some sorta fish (sea bream I'm told!). Decided to splash the cash we had turned down and got chicken liver parfait for starters and a mustard mash and carrots for side dishes.

Slept pretty much the entire journey well Chloe did putting her feet everywhere!! I bought Cass at the airport (one for you Mark) and read quite a bit of that…´ im CASS!!´ Couple more lovely meals courtesy of BA and the flight flew-by (no pun intended!).

Arrived in Sao Paulo and realized that knowing absolutely zilch Portuguese might make our travels a little trick but hey the English don't need to learn other languages!! Got the airport bus to near where our hotel was and was then royally ripped off by a devious Brazilian taxi driver who drove around for 10 minutes before taken us to our hotel which was 30 seconds from where we were picked up, cheeky sod charged us 25 real!

The hotel was far from luxurious in fact I'm pretty sure it was located in Sao Paulo's red light district! And the room was pretty humorous they gave us a circular bed! (pictures to follow) We had a little nap then had a wander around Centro passing so many homeless people just sleeping on the pavement, very nice! After wandering aimlessly around for over an hour in temperatures of 36 degrees we decided to head back to the hotel (Chloe was sweating profusely) and call Pedro our contact in Sao Paulo. Thank God we did because from what we'd seen of Sao Paulo we were going to leave the next day! Pedro met us at the hotel with his daughter Camille and immediately asked us to check-out and go and stay at his pad. Drove quite a way from the squalor of Centro to a lovely neighborhood where Pedro lived dropped off our bags and went to have an all you can eat BBQ (same chain as the one Awar and Jose went to in Huston!). Went for a stroll down Paulista Avenue checking out a couple of markets and trying some Brazilian ice-cream before heading back to the pad. Chilled out then went out for a few drinks in the evening Brahma Chopp is very nice!

So today we plan to chill out sunbathe a little in Pedro's garden (it´s still 35 degrees clear blue skies!) and will be heading up the coast to Paraty in the next day or so…

Oh forgot to mention they have two awesome dogs one a golden retriever and a pincher (possible the cutest dog in the world!) which fully grown is the size of skinny (Chloe's Kitten). Will keep you updated love to all.

Rory and Chloe. xxx

Sao Paulo cont..

stayed with Pedro until wednesday morning. we did more touristy things around sao paulo- visted sao paulo stadium- where pedro told the grounds staff rory was an awesome footballer from england (bloody joke), saw a snake zoo had coco water and sugar cane drink ont he roadside (v. authentic) and continued to sweat ALOT!! in the eveing we went to a jazz bar with a live band, v.cultured! with pedro and drunk lots of chopp (draft beer), tuesday we didnt do much just relaxed- it poured with rain in the afternoon which was awesome as it cooled the place down to 29 degrees ( so im told- i was sleeping, again!) then in the evening we had the best night- camilla and her friends and pedro and his girlfriend took us to a salsa bar called Bueno vista, where they MADE me and rory dance with two salsa teachers! NOW i have never been so horrified in my whole life, the entire bar faces the dance floor and everyone watches (dreadful), i was pretty damn good (training in arenal) but i am told rory dances like a .... well he just cant dance! possiblly steping on her toes aLOT!! anyway great evening! although driving home late in the morning is pretty intimidating but we defo felt safer in pedros bullet proof car!!

Had to get up at 5.30 to go to PARTAY