So...Sao Paulo, Brazil. After months of anticipation and planning (OK, we didn't really plan much for this trip other than getting our flights to South America, sorting out a place to stay for the first 2 nights and booking the Machu Picchu hike), we were somewhat...underwhelmed. The truth is - Sao Paulo - the largest city in Brazil and 7th largest in the world, is really like any other big city in a developing country. After about 5 hours of walking around the city center on our second day of arrival (by the time we arrived and checked into our little hotel room on the first day, there wasn't much daylight left and we were told by multiple parties not to venture out alone in the night which we dutifully obeyed), this is what we concluded about the city:
1) Chaos is the order of the day. And yet, there is some kind of a rhythm to it all.
2) If you don't speak Portuguese, you just don't speak. Despite it being a melting pot of people, the locals speak very little English. "No Ingles..."
3) Living here ain't cheap. For example, our basic hotel (and by basic, we mean that they don't provide a kettle to boil water) set us back by USD145 per night, and that's excluding wi-fi. For about the same amount, you could stay at the swankiest hotels in Jakarta / KL / Bangkok...

In summary, we are glad that we are not staying here more than the 2 nights that we planned. I think it's fair to say that our adventure will only truly start on Day 3 when we fly out to the party capital of the world, Rio de Janeiro!