I'm not going to lie, I did feck all in Sao Paolo. Mostly because our hostel was ah-may-zing and I didn't want to leave. It's called Hostel Brazil Boutique and is not even a year old so it's all white and shiny and comfy. I had a room to myself, an English speaking television and the guy who worked on reception made cakes in the evenings, I wanted to move in there!
When I finally did venture outside into the huge city the sun was burning in the sky and there was a street festival taking place. Salsa music was blaring from speakers and there were hundreds of stalls lining the streets.
We also figured out the metro maze and made our way to Sao Bento to see Sao Paolo's answer to The Empire State Building, The Altino Arantes Building, also known as the Banespa Building. It takes about an hour to queue and get to the top and they close the viewing box at 3pm but it's worth a look if you have the time.
The view from the top shows just how crazy big the city actually is. It's the biggest city in the Southern Hemisphere, probably a good place to go if you don't want to be found!
Street art is a huge part of the city and you can see really impressive graffiti almost everywhere you look.
We also visited the Japanese part of town, the district of Liberdade. Sao Paolo has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. It's so strange stepping off the metro into a completely different culture. The street lights and buildings have an oriental feel and the shops sell Japanese food and souvenirs. While we were there we went for a shiatsu massage and worked out some backpacking kinks!
The plan was to spend only one night in Sao Paolo and then fly to Santiago in Chile, but when a 8.5 earthquake hit Santiago that day we decided to move our flight. Didn't do a whole lot, but definitely regarded the batteries as the end of our time in South America gets ever closer.
And thanks to Karen for all of these pics!
Next Stop: Santiago
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