It is weird that in the UK we are always complaining that we do not have enough proper sun, but less than a week in Brazil has taught me that this is not such a curse.
It is true that Europe is colder than South America, Africa or the far East and certainly although they have had their civilisations the relatively small, flat and temperate climate of Europe has given rise to many cultures, technologies and languages that have survived intact despite invasion and occupation.
It could be that a lot of the wealth of the Americas was plundered by the Europeans but another part of the puzzle is that the Europeans had to travel, had to trade with other people and forged links right across the world.
But I am getting off the point rather a lot here, aren’t I. Sorry about that. Ok, let me get back on track, with my what-am-I-doing diary proper of Sao Paulo.
I arrived early at my hotel and they were kind enough for me to set up my laptop in the reception even though I could not check in until around 10am. Finding the place was a bit of an effort, but mainly as Google maps tries to make sense of what is a manic and crazy set of roads and give them labels which have either changed or have always been called something else by the locals.
I didn’t recognise the hotel by the front, as the photo on their website that I remember must of been on another building entirely, and I was glad that I had booked this place ahead as it was normally BR $75 minimum per night for even the smallest of rooms, and I had got it for a steal of just over half that.
After checking in I dropped off my bag and began to scan the booklet that the hotel reception had given me when I had asked for a map. In almost the centre was a few different maps, considering that Sao Paulo is considered to be the third largest metropolis and has a population of over ten million people, and I had really hoped that they would have pull out maps of the entire region but in an area that big its seems its not possible.
No one in the hotel speaks fluent English that I have met at least, and so the best that I can do is hope to watch the big football match on a TV somewhere.
The booklet was pretty much the same old rubbish, lots of stuff about other hotels, restaurants and art galleries, all of which are no real use to me, and the stuff about what the best places to visit for a few hours or to get a great photo just seem to be missing from the place.
I would have considered writing one as part of my book, but most of it would have to be second hand knowledge as it would take me an eternity to walk all the streets and in the heat of 36 degrees that just isn’t an option.
Thus it was that I decided to go for a short stroll and see what fun I could find just in the neighbourhood. The thing with a city this big, is that there can’t be fun on every corner and I seemed to have picked a dozy of a place, fairly central but then again not exactly close to anything.
Everywhere I look there is dirt, dust, broken down buildings and I am starting to get a little homesick as nothing seems to mean much to me.
There are loads of cheap corner stalls to grab a bite to eat and can of drink for about BR $2.50, which is absolute peanuts, and I can see why people say that this country is cheap to live in.
However although you can survive on cans of coke and a sausage roll I would not exactly call it living, and I am always on the lookout for somewhere that looks cheap but tasty and more importantly doesn’t look as if a few strong kicks would collapse a wall and bring the whole roof caving in over my head.
I would say that I have seen no actual newsagents, as I do not think they exist persay here, but what I have seen are loads and loads of on street market stalls / kiosks offering postcards, newspapers, off the top shelf magazines and cigarettes.
Possibly due to a minor case of sunstroke, I managed to get turned around just a few blocks away and so I spent a good half hour walking around in circles trying to find something I recognised.
Finally making it back to the hotel I decided that I again decided that perhaps Brazil was not for me and so I tried to contact my travel agents to move up my flight by a day or three if it was at all possible.
Here however, I came up against something that I didn’t consider, in that I booked a South American flight online with the cheapest agents who were Zuji who are based in Australia and now when I want to call them I have to wait for their offices to open.
After trying for hours, and killing time by using facebook to kill things and scan in photos, I finally managed to get in touch with them but then they said in order to make the change they would need to contact the airlines office, who by now was closed for the day.
Next point to remember – always book a flight with a agency who have a office in the same city, country or at least continent as the airline that you intend to fly with, otherwise you too could face being unable to make any last minute changes.
By around the time it came to watching the football it was dark enough to make me have second thoughts about leaving the hotel alone with a phone while I was waiting for my travel agents to try and get back in contact, so I just sat in the hotel lobby and surfed the internet, boring but safe.
The football match was boring to watch, without being surrounded by thousands of crazed fans and the fact that there were no goals meant that the whole thing was a complete anticlimax and I just went to bed.
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