This morning I decided to try and feel more my old self, so I stuck on a few music tracks of the 80's to get me going in the right direction. The travel agents had told me the bad news that I was indeed unable to change my flight this close to takeoff and so I just had to make the best of Sao Paulo and perhaps use the time better to plan more of Peru so that I would not be making the same mistakes again.
After this I then grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast and I had to admit that I have got a slightly better physique these days, probably having lost about a stone in all the walking and not eating that I have been doing recently.
I still say that I am not doing a lot of walking with the full rucksack but then with it weighing 10 kilos I have already noticed some slight tearing of the straps and I am only hoping that the overall strength holds for the remainder of the trip.
I wanted to give Sao Paulo another chance as it wasn't really its fault that the hostel owner in Rio pissed me off so much, or that the hotel didn't really have anything for its guests to look at for visiting the city, so I used the web and found that it had an asian district and a Zoo nearby. It also has a water theme park that I might visit tomorrow that should kill off the remainder of my time here and then it will be on to Peru.
But back to today and I found that the best way to travel around was not walking or car but the Metro system, which experts say is one of the best in the world. Well I am not so sure about one of the best, but it was easy to get tickets ( thought not from automated machines like in Europe ) and once you get the hang of it how to tell which way your heading towards then its all easy.
And the reason why you have to travel by the metro is cos the roads are so god damn crazy, like a ball of spaghetti and they can go both over an under each other each other anyway and anytime they like and at once stage I was sure that there was three roads deep before you hit the ground.
The asian district was very cool, as they must have had some serious input in the way it looks as not only have they got some nice huge hotels, etc, but they have even changed the way the street lights are shaped and look going down the roads.
It was funny to look at a very asian scene in the middle of South America and I have never seen so many samurai swords, throwing stars and weird shaped knifes on racks in just about every shop or stall that I passed, whether it was toys, souveneirs or even a book store.
There must have been some sort of parade or rally or something there are just up the road there was lots of photography going on and lots of people wearing matching t-shirts, but I was just trying to get away from the beggards that were chasing me and I found it offputting that one decided to get changed under half a blanket in the middle of the plaza.
After that I headed off towards the zoo and a little bit of warning, go up to the zoo kiosk on the outside of the main metro station to buy your ticket as it comes with the bus ride included, though if you just look at the tube map you might think that you will have to buy a seperate ticket.
The zoo was pretty much like every other zoo, so lots of cages, high fences, obscure animals and places to buy coke. Today must have been the local school visit as it was filled with lots of the horrors all running around and scaring the poor animals witless.
Apart from the arguement of capturing animals and sticking them in cages, the other reason why zoos are not so great to visit in South America, is that during the day it's damn hot and so the animals try to get as much shade as possible, which makes photographing them by the local kids and tourist kind of hard.
I must have rushed my visit, as I missed the wolf and the condor cages, two of the ones I would have liked to see, and on the bus back I was the only one on it, and so I had the whole bus to myself, not that the driver was in any hurry to get back of course.
Once I got back in my hotel I found that the cost of a ticket to Peru was now $1,000, which is waaaay toooo much to try and swallow, so instead I just resolved to email a few people, try not to feel too depressed or lonely and thankfully I found a few people online to chat to that helped.
After this I then grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast and I had to admit that I have got a slightly better physique these days, probably having lost about a stone in all the walking and not eating that I have been doing recently.
I still say that I am not doing a lot of walking with the full rucksack but then with it weighing 10 kilos I have already noticed some slight tearing of the straps and I am only hoping that the overall strength holds for the remainder of the trip.
I wanted to give Sao Paulo another chance as it wasn't really its fault that the hostel owner in Rio pissed me off so much, or that the hotel didn't really have anything for its guests to look at for visiting the city, so I used the web and found that it had an asian district and a Zoo nearby. It also has a water theme park that I might visit tomorrow that should kill off the remainder of my time here and then it will be on to Peru.
But back to today and I found that the best way to travel around was not walking or car but the Metro system, which experts say is one of the best in the world. Well I am not so sure about one of the best, but it was easy to get tickets ( thought not from automated machines like in Europe ) and once you get the hang of it how to tell which way your heading towards then its all easy.
And the reason why you have to travel by the metro is cos the roads are so god damn crazy, like a ball of spaghetti and they can go both over an under each other each other anyway and anytime they like and at once stage I was sure that there was three roads deep before you hit the ground.
The asian district was very cool, as they must have had some serious input in the way it looks as not only have they got some nice huge hotels, etc, but they have even changed the way the street lights are shaped and look going down the roads.
It was funny to look at a very asian scene in the middle of South America and I have never seen so many samurai swords, throwing stars and weird shaped knifes on racks in just about every shop or stall that I passed, whether it was toys, souveneirs or even a book store.
There must have been some sort of parade or rally or something there are just up the road there was lots of photography going on and lots of people wearing matching t-shirts, but I was just trying to get away from the beggards that were chasing me and I found it offputting that one decided to get changed under half a blanket in the middle of the plaza.
After that I headed off towards the zoo and a little bit of warning, go up to the zoo kiosk on the outside of the main metro station to buy your ticket as it comes with the bus ride included, though if you just look at the tube map you might think that you will have to buy a seperate ticket.
The zoo was pretty much like every other zoo, so lots of cages, high fences, obscure animals and places to buy coke. Today must have been the local school visit as it was filled with lots of the horrors all running around and scaring the poor animals witless.
Apart from the arguement of capturing animals and sticking them in cages, the other reason why zoos are not so great to visit in South America, is that during the day it's damn hot and so the animals try to get as much shade as possible, which makes photographing them by the local kids and tourist kind of hard.
I must have rushed my visit, as I missed the wolf and the condor cages, two of the ones I would have liked to see, and on the bus back I was the only one on it, and so I had the whole bus to myself, not that the driver was in any hurry to get back of course.
Once I got back in my hotel I found that the cost of a ticket to Peru was now $1,000, which is waaaay toooo much to try and swallow, so instead I just resolved to email a few people, try not to feel too depressed or lonely and thankfully I found a few people online to chat to that helped.
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