Sao Paulo – Largest City in the World?

Off to Brazil!! Wow, I don’t know how many time zones we crossed from Peru but the sun rose really fast.   I couldn’t sleep on the plane so I wound up watching some movie called “Monte Carlo”.   Not really that interesting, but, considering the day we had on the 9^th, anything that didn’t require a lot of thought was most welcome.   

On Jan 10^th we arrived in Sao Paulo at 5:55am, completely exhausted.   We grabbed our bags and went through customs.    Then we went to look for information on a bus or the train.   We had found a place to stay online while we were in the San Jose airport so we knew where we wanted to go.   We caught the bus from Guarhulos Airport to the Tutaope Metro Station (about 30 mins).    Sao Paulo is the world’s 7^th largest city with a population of about 19 million people.   It was cool seeing Sao Paulo from the bus as we drove down the busy highway.   The entire skyline of Sao Paulo seems to be made up of skyscrapers and highrise condos… lots and lots of condos.  

I really had no idea how bustling a city Sao Paulo really was.   This is the largest city we’ve ever been to.   This was made clearer when got to the train station (during rush hour).   The train was packed, that is no-need-to-hold-on packed.  You just lean on the person next to you and you’re fine.   Even still, people were trying to squeeze in.   We had to let a few trains go by before we attempted getting into one with our huge backpacks.   We caught the train to Se` Station where we transferred to the blue line to Vila Mariana.  Sao Paulo is easy to navigate and quite organized. 

Sao Paulo, named after St.  Paul the Apostle, has also very unpredictable weather.   Coming from the metro we found it raining.  Luckily it was a light rain.  We wandered down the streets trying to find the right cross street.   Luckily we managed to find it and minutes later got to our first hostel, Okupe Hostel Vila Mariana.   It would cost us 38 real each to stay a night (hostels charge per person/per night).  We’re not sure how we’ll like it so we only pay for one night.  Since our flight arrived so early we were there way before check-in so the room wasn’t ready yet.   But the guy at the reception desk says, “We have breakfast upstairs, go ahead and grab some.” PTL that they speak really good English. 

Okupe Hostel Kitchen and Chilling Room

We enjoyed some breakfast rolls and juice and then head downstairs to the TV room and plopped down on the couch.  Muthoni falls asleep on my shoulder immediately (I love these tender moments, makes me smile).  I was determined to wait until later in the day to sleep so that I could be on a somewhat normal sleep schedule.   Finally our room was ready - think bunkbeds and a dresser.   We got a mixed dorm which could be very interesting, but nobody was there so we were good.   Though we were exhausted we figured it would be good to go get something to eat and grab some groceries too (since our hostel has a self service kitchen).   We ate lunch in some corner restaurant where our lack of Portuguese knowledge made us act out the things we want.   To ask for rice and chicken we used Spanish - arroz con pollo thinking that that would be adequate.   “Arroz” passed but not “pollo”.   So we do the “universal” sign for chicken and tuck our hands in our armpits and begin flapping (sounds so ridiculous).  Yeah, he didn’t get it.   The menu didn’t help either.   So we looked around at peoples plates and just pointed to the food.   Mu had beef, rice and beans, I had pork sausage, rice and beans.  Wasn’t bad.   We then get back to the hostel, clean up and fall asleep…finally.  We slept from about noon to 6pm.   We woke up, made some dinner and skyped.   Then we turned in for the night… only now at one of the other bunks in the room (there are eight in the room) there’s someone else’s luggage.  (Oh, we have another roommate).    Hmm, already weird enough sleeping on the bunk below my wife, but now sharing our sleeping quarters with someone else… We figured it won’t be bad, he’s on the other side of the room, I have my knife handy, and we’re way too tired to move to another room.   So we fall asleep with no ill effects.   (Muthoni’s still sick though and still no voice - I really miss her voice.)