It is my third week in Brazil and so far me and Cameron have only paid for 3 nights accomidation. So far so good, but things may change when we get gouged in Rio for Carnival. Keep meeting friendly people, who offer us places to crash. At this rate, I can travel for ever!
Currently in Floronapolis after a crazy mix up in Sao Paulo. Well, the wedding of my friend Paul and Denise went very well. At the after party, me and Cameron were minor celeberties, because foreigners rarely visit Patrocinio Paulista, a city of 1,200 in Northern Sao Paulo state. Me and Cameron had a blast and met some nice girls there. On Sunday, everyone went to the Leal (denise´s family) family farm, where they had a spring fed swimming pool and a little snucker table. The farm was incredable, we were surrounded by fields of coffee and grazing pastures. It is kinda funny that I have been drinking coffee all my life, but this was the first time I have seen coffee plants. The Leal family certainly knows how to enjoy life and be happy. By all accounts, they have it made. Suprising, since the family income comes from the little butcher shop they run in Pat. PaULISTA.
Me and Cameron bussed it to Sao Paulo hoping to get a ticket to Floronapolis, but we arrived at 11:30 and everything was closed so we had to find somewhere to crash. We ended up taking the subway to the area near a hostel, but we got totally lost. So there we were at 12:30am on a sunday night wandering the streets of Sao Paulo looking for a hostel with all of our gear. It was pretty nerve racking, because wandering Sao Paulo at 12:30 in the morning with all of your crap, obviously lost, is the exact thing that all of the travel guides warn you not to do. However, we found a taxi and he took us to the hostle. The next day me and Cameron got our bus tickets to Floronapolis and wandered around the city until we had to split. Sao Paulo is a huge city of 17 million. It has the largest concentration of Japanese outside of Japan, which I was suprised to learn. The street vendors there were selling everything imaginable. I got some knock-off designer shirts and soccer jerseys, along with a Belombow, which is an insturment of NE Brazil that the Bahians play while they participate in Caporera (Brazilian street fighting style started by the slaves). I slept like a rock on the 10hr. bus ride to Floronapolis. There we met up with Ines, an Argentine girl from Cordoba who Cameron dated when he we living in Argentina. That first day we went to the beach with Ines and her family and me and Cameron recieved the worst sunburn in our collective memories. The next day we ventured south to a beach called Ferruge, which is like Cancun for Argentines. It was a cool surf town filled with young Argentines who party until the sun comes up. We met up with some of Ines´friends and drank until sunrise, then caught a bus back to Floronapolis. I have to say, Argentines are pretty cool, and their women give the Brazilian girls serious competition as far as looks go. Haven´t surfed yet, but manana for sure.