Hola from Sao Paulo! I'm being a Paulistino at the moment, having ditched the carioca vibe in search of new adventures...

My friend Rod is from Sampa, as the locals call it, and despite not having a positive word to say about the place encouraged me to stop over there and explore. I feel a bit sorry for Sao Paulo - no-one seems to like it! Residents all want to live somewhere else, despite the fact that (to a tourist) it seems to have a lot going for it. Ok, so it has over 19 million inhabitants, a high crime rate and a frankly ridiculous traffic system, but its also the cultural capital of Brazil. It has a Japan Town, an Italian district, a huge number of galleries and museums and over 12 thousand restaurants... After slight disappointment with the cuisine in Rio I'm ready for a good feed.

So today I'm heading off to explore the city and meeting up with some of Rod's friends, which'll be lovely. I spent yesterday hanging out in Vila Mariana (the bohemian district where I'm staying - its lovely, and has the most impressive fancy dress shop I've ever seen! Seriously, silly hats are travel essentials, yes?). I also headed to Sao Paulo's version of Central Park - it's enormous, with a huge lake, Japanese gardens, and 3 museums. Had a lovely toddle around the museum of Brazilian/African art (well it was called something like that) - it also had amazing fancy dress! Off to have a nosey around the centre now. Tonight I'm leaving for Florianopolis - back to the beach! Pray for sunshine..

x

p.s. Sao Paulo turned out to be really great! There's so much to see and do, I needed longer there really. Had a great time exploring the huge Japan town (the city has the largest Japanese population in the world, outside of Japan itself), then wandering through the city looking at stunning cathedrals, a monastery, galleries and the beautiful Teatro Municipal (shame it was closed, very pretty from the outside though). Oh, and Sao Paulo has some fantastic street art - check out my silly posed pics outside the art gallery in the park. I want to go back there someday...