Leaving Sao Paulo and Technical Difficulties

When I left for this trip I took a number of gadjets and gismos with me to try and enhance the experience and enable me to get the most out of it, however slowly but surely they are the things that are failing the test of time and the rigours of travel.

1) Extending Lens Attachment .... clouds up photos too much and is unable to be attached to the camera, only the phone which takes poor photos at the best of times. Sent Home.
2) Electronic DIctaphone ... bought to take interviews with friends and interesting people but the internal memory corrupted and would not let me format or delete any previous data so soon became full up and then useless for further recording. Left in Madrid
3) Mobile Phone Recharger ... wire at base of plug became frayed and then broke meaning that it would no longer carry the power or charge the phone, thus became useless and made the phone useless also til I manage to find a new recharger. BInned in Sao Paulo.
4) Laptop Modem Extender Lead ... somehow removed itself from my bagm or possibly just fell down the back of my chair and thus out of view, between Sao Paulo hotel reception and arrival in Santa Cruz airport. I bet it was the lepricauns that did it.

I have no idea what will be next, but as I only have my digital camera, the laptop itself, the modem itself, the cellphone itself ( currently dead ) and my small electronic two way Spanish / English translator I hope if any more that it is the last one and I further hope that when it goes it will be after I leave the Dominican Republic as by then I will be out of Latin America and on my way to the Pacific .

On my way to the airport I noticed a few things that I had not previously spotted, mainly more people and how huge Sao Paulo was going by bus.

It was an effort to find the right bus to go to Sao Paulo airport, at a cost of BR $24, as it was not very well sign posted ( but is anything in Brazil ) yet it was either that or get a taxi all the way or finally get a metro most of the way there and then either try and walk 5 kilometers along highways or again try to grab a taxi the rest of the way. For convenience and cost cutting I chose the bus route.

Journeying on the bus I am glad that I chose it sa it seemed to have almost a private lane or the dirver was related to Michael Schumacker, as we passed so many other vehicles I thought we was going to get a speeding fine.

At one point we slowed to a crawl and I was saddened at the sight of a disabled man in a wheelchair with one leg cropped at the knee and the other with signs of decay and damage rolling himself down the road and stopping at each drivers window to beg some small change with almost 100% success, which shows the generosity of the people in Sao Paulo.

At another stage we passed a car showroom and it was here that I saw my frist true Braziiian beauty, or perhaps it was the make up, tight fitting clothes and hidden padded bra, ( at these speeds couldn't really tell for certain), but up til that point I would have sworn that all the stunners you see in the Carnivals are not actualy real Brazilian women but robots that are kept hidden away in container crates and only brought out for show during the fiestas.

Arriving in the airport was not too bad, and it amused me that I couldn't find anywhere in the main town to get a masage ( apart from the x-rated ones in the back of the tourist guide ) but here in the airport there were at least three massage places all within spitting distance of each other, which also meant that there is a good chance there are more near the other gates and zones!

The Brazilians are so totally nutty about football, and not only local but any ones that are on, that in the airport there were more tv screens showing the Italian football seria A than there were screens for the departure and arrivals.

I touched down in Santa Cruz at about 7.30, which became 6.30 local time and my own Terminal Experience started, however I doubt that it will be as exciting as Tom Hanks version. True to form, the female flight attendants are some of the most striking women I have seen, and the Bolivians I saw put most of the Brazilians I met to shame, and their pristeen uniforms and smart hair was a sight to behold.

A local sports team, football I think, were all waiting for a local flight and could be seen all milling about in their track suit tops and sports shorts giving out autographs and having their picture taken with the locals who recognised them and were brave enough to ask.

The airport terminal itself was smaller than my local school, modern but with only 8 departure gates and a top floor that only had two esculators, one up and the other unsurprisingly down. All the stores seemed to close at around 9:00 local time, which was after the last flght took off and I am guessing that no more will be landing either tonight. I seem to be the only person left in the terminal upstairs and I am seriously considering if this was such a good idea of if i should have said hang the cost and got a taxi to the nearest hotel to spend the night there, but by now it will have closed and the taxis wil lhave doubled their costs, plus the currency exchange booth is also now closed so my alternatives have pretty much narrowed themselves down to none.

I hope to still have myself, my laptop and all my belongings in the morning but only time will tell.

Sao Paulo and the rain

Last night I decided to dare a little bit outside mpmy hotel after dark, but kept myself light of anything valuable and only stuck to the main streets where even I could not get lost no matter how hard I might try.

The rain had stopped for the night and out came the late night revellers, the tramps, the corner market sellers, pimps and prostitutes.

On each corner I could see the homeless talking and huddling together, afraid to get too close to the world less someone shun then, little open topped fires burning though what thew were using as fuel is anyones guess.

The street walkers were up and down, all with phones to their ears looking busy should any police stop then, but as you wlk past them they smile and say ola to you, and then when they reach a group of men they are quick to reach out an inviting hand and hope for a conversation and more.

A few of the local nightclubs that were all shuttered up and invisible during the day were now open, it being after 9pm, thogh I bet some opened a fraction earlier as men were leaving just as I walked past and it had only just a few minutes past the hour.

Occasionally I woudl hear the beat of drums and on investigating it woud appear that certain bands and certain coffee shops / restaurants have deals where they can play their instruments and possibly even attract tourists or locals to come and stay listening to the music. It was nice and a welcome change to the boredom of the day, but soon the repetetive banging was just noise after a long day and I longed to return to the comfort of my hotel room where it was warm and peaceful.

In the morning I woke up very early and had another bash at researching some places to visit in the next few cities that I shall visit and totally forget about breakfast til about 8am, when I grabbed a hsower and rushed down only to find that the rest of the guests had almost totally devowered all the pineapple and delicious syrup cake that was on offer each morning.

Heading on down to the main reception I was saddened to see that the rain had returned in full force and that if I was to take a trip to the airport it would be a boring wait there or to remain in my hotel long after check out doing not a lot either.

Rain stops play, lol

Later this afternoon I will be heading on over to the airport and flying to Bolivia for a night time stop over of about 12 hours, which will be very er um novel and unusual, and perhaps I can take another attempt at a Latourex tour, which is the tour of the airport where you are visiting it rather than there for a trip, as for sure overnight it should come alive .... yeah right.

Sao Paulo, hiding and nightclubs

I have a feeling why GW Bush was so sure that the Iraqi's had WMD's .. it was because someone told him that they had help hiding them from the Brazilians!

These guys can hide anything. So far I have been unable to find a pizza place, various metro stations, a bridge and recently an entire amusement park complete with rollercoasters, haunted house, flashing lights and loud music blaring out ... apparently.

I used their own website to get directions and find on the map exactly where it was meant to be, found the road and walked the entire length looking on both sides, I mean, hw hard can it be to spot an amusement park with a roller coaster in the middle of a grimy city with nothing going on but the occasional bus and train gonig past!

However I must have walked right past it and blinked to have missed it totaly as I ended up on the next road after passing under a bridge and then it was behind me, only when I turned round there was nothing to suggest a park.

I have no idea why they are trying to make their places so hard to find, but there are precious few signs for anything in any direction and I am glad that I don't drive as I would be pulling my hair out trying to find anywhere or anywhere to park.

After a few days of blistering heat it was nice that the clouds covered over earlier today, however I got my wish and more as it continued to cloud over and by dinner time it was a full scale thunderstorm with lighting and rain included.

However, before I made it back to the hotel in my wanderings I managed to walk right into one of Sao Paulo's many red light districts, and had to stop and take some photos of the nigth clubs as they have made an effort to even give them themes, so check them out.

Having already overspend on the first month of this trip I was not about to blow even more money on going inside, so I will have to wonder what shows they have inside, but then from past experience and internet rumours they are shoddy affairs high on expense and low on overall content, plus you get pestered to buy overinflated drinks for the girls just for them to sit next to you and chat ... what a con!

Sao Paulo, day 2

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.

A few sights of Sao Paulo

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.

I might just be getting homesick in Brazil

I am not the worlds best traveller and no matter how many countries I visit or how long I stay away from home will not change that fact.

I do not enjoy sleeping alone, breakfasts that I cannot decribe or identify, trying to guide myself about using jedi force and blind luck, hopping on and off buses and metro stops because I am afraid that I will get lost if I chose to walk, music that I cannot sing along with, tv that is so wholy strange I cannot tell where the adverts end and the programs begins, restautants where flies buzzing over the food is just a daily thing to get past, showers that are either constantly hot or cold, sun that is so hot I am diving from shop to shop just to hide from the rays, time zones where everyone is asleep when I am awake and being so far away from my friends that I cannot share a joke or a thought with a familiar face.

It is no wonder that the armed forced enforce a strict busy daily routine, and it is little wonder than on their off hours many soliders just kill time before their next shift by gambling, drinking or searching for a bit of TLC.

I have a new liking for all inclusive package holidays where the reps do all the work for you and all you have to do is go from one amusement to the next and tip a little here and there to oil the wheels.

When I first thought of going travelling I liked the idea, but it was a bit like namedropping with Cities. If I was to mention that I saw Brad Pitt and had a long conversations with him then a lot of people would ask more about it, but other than the fact it was Brad Pitt it is unlikely that any of the conversation itself would be remarkable or worth retelling as a story.

So when I thought about travelling I chose lots of cities that seemed cool, that I had heard lots of good things about and a few that had people I knew of there, but not always good friends. I forgot to include that the people who went there did not do so on a shoestring budget, that they did not go alone, that they could speak a lot more of the local language than me and that they were only going for a couple of weeks as a break from their normal lives.

Whereas I am doing everything the opposite, and it would be nice to find a place that I fitted in and could stay for a week or two to escape from the hassle of travelling without it feeling like I am pulling my nails trying to get through the day without actually spending vast amounts of money or watching movie reruns.

A few people said that this trip was likely to get travelling out of my system and I would say that it has already, at least in countries where I can't converse with any of the locals, where I am alone and where I have nothing that I really want to see.

I can already say that I am looking forward to Peru only because I have an interest in Inca history and culture, but also because I have a few friends that I am sure will not let me down and we can share some good quality time just hanging out and socialising.

Looking at my itiniary I am getting a little nervous about various weeks in the trip when I can already see that I will have no one around to talk with and by the middle of the week I will be feeling a little sorry for myself.

I would not say that going travelling around the world was a mistake, as it was something that I did enjoy, and something that when it is done right I still do enjoy, but after this I think that I will be on the lookout for a new hobby that does not involve spending thousands of pounds and taking me so far out of my comfort zone that