After walking near 40km over the previous two days, we decided to take today a little easier, heading to the bakery for breakfast before hanging out with the fish in the pool. After a relaxing morning we woke up Felipe to say thankyou and fairwell before heading back via train to our new hostel in Vila Madalena. This was the afternoon of our first tropical storm, too, and what a storm! What started out as a short walk to the grocery store turned into a swim as wa...

Today started with a dip in the pool, then dragging Lisa out of bed for breakfast at the local bakery. Pao de Queijo is a delicious fluffy scone-like bread on the outside, but torn open contains a lattice of holes with a great mild cheesy flavour. After breakfast, we took the trains to Barra Funda to arrange the next leg of our trip: A long bus ride to Santa Cruz. Following that ordeal and a great many lost in translation moments, we decided to walk to the centra...

After breakfast at the Zen Hostel we headed out to explore Vila Madalena, a Brunswick-esque neighbourhood of hippies, hills and sidewalks that a cross country runner would balk at. It was gorgeous, filled with parks and public playgrounds, and the people and dogs enjoying them. After a wonder, we took the trains into Brooklyn. Sao Paulo trains are much more efficient than our Melbourne variety, moving much faster and arriving on time! Three line changes later we ...

Aviation is not a game designed with those above 6' in stature. This made itself apparent even before squeezing into our seats, when, much both Lisa and the security guard's amusement, I managed to jar fingers on the ceiling of the x-ray scanner! The flights themselves were relatively painless, consisting of sleeping, drinking - alas no cognac - and watching movies which would inexplicably cut out every 5-10 minutes as the Etihad "E-box" system is evidently still...