Parati
We were in Parati, a coastal pirate town, for two days. Famous for its beautiful beaches, ports and fishing I would never have known about this place if it had not been on our itinerary, but it was a pretty little town with plenty of character and lots of evil mosquitos who had a field day eating at my legs and feet..
It couldn’t be any further from the madness of Rio. The main town was quirky and had the largest cobble stone pavements I have seen. They were a nightmare to walk on in flip flops, which was made even more difficult after a massive downpour.
Our attempt to hit one of the well known beaches on our free day was scuppered by on and off rain so instead we spent the time looking around the arty shops and relaxing in the 20 minutes of sunshine with a capiriniha – a very sugary, but refreshing Brazilian cocktail that we have already had too many of.
Sao Paulo
The drive to Sao Paulo was long but picturesque. As Brazil’s largest city it has a population of more than 20 million and skyscrapers fill the vast skyline.
Sao Paulo is bizarrely renown throughout the country for its fantastic pizzas and has 6,000 pizzerias. So guess what I ate for the next two days?!
Unfortunately there is very little to see in this concrete jungle and I thought it lacked character. Within one afternoon we had walked around the historic buildings and the cathedral and felt we had seen all there was to see.
While the city clearly has all the money. I really didn’t think it was anything special.
In the evening we went to watch Palmerias (Sao Paulo’s biggest football team) play another local team. While the game wasn’t the best, the atmosphere was great. It was great to see people of all ages getting into the chants and dances.
I very much doubt I’ll miss Sao Paulo. While it was nice to see it, it was a bit of an anti-climax really.
Crowds of all ages gather for the football game in Sao Paulo