Sao Paolo, Brazil

On the 11th I was off to the biggest city I´ve ever been to, Sao Paolo, Brazil. It has over 21 million people in it´s surrounding area. Imagine two thirds of Canada in one city. It is crazy to get around Sao Paolo. It´s a good thing they have a good metro system. After I slept off the lack of sleep from the overnight flight Cole and I hit the town. Julio couldn´t go out because he was spending some quality time with the porcelain gods. He got hit with the ol´travellers diaherria. Lucky Julio! So we met up with my Brazilian friend that I met on my exchange. We met them at this bar that is pretty much the Stickey Wicket of Sao Paolo. Good tunes, cheap beer and tons of cougars that want to jump your bones. The only weird thing was it costed over $10 CAD for cover. Apparently this is a normal thing in Sao Paolo. You also pay it when you leave. They give you a slip that you are supposed to keep. When you buy a drink they mark it down. You pay for everything at the end of the night. Cole and I were considering leaving the bar from the top patio. Our coordination was not going to permit that at the time so we decided not to. After that bar we went to a discoteca (club) to meet some guarantinas (They call them that for a reason). I found out that night why people rave about the Sao Paolo night life. You can go out any night of the week and find bars that are new to you and packed. That´s definitely one nice thing about a big city.

The next day I met up with my crazy Brazilian friend Peter. He lives in a nice house with a friend in Vila Madalena. I felt very privileged to stay there. One thing we had a problem with was we had been stuck in Peruvian time the whole time we´ve been in Brazil. We wake up late, do the touristy stuff late and go out late. Going out late is usually fine in Sao Paolo because the bars are open till the early morning but we ended up going out really late on Friday and couldn´t get in any bars at 3:30am. Ya, that´s a little too late. We lost track of time...

The next day Peter showed us some nice parts of Sao Paolo, we got our Brazilian phones (Great deals btw) and we got to try the best sandwiches of Sao Paolo and the best chocolate cake in the world (I still think my Mom´s is better). That night we went out to one of the nicest bars in Sao Paolo and it turned out Amy Winehouse was playing that night. I definitely didn´t appreciate it because I didn´t even know who she is. Apparently she´s a pretty big deals. She must have a large assortment of leather bound books that smell of rich mahagony...

On Sunday I went with Peter and Silvia to there uncle´s place for a birthday lunch. I ate some incredible food there. I had atleast 6 different types of meat and couple different deserts including tira misu. I got to try cow tongue for the first time. It´s actually really good. We then watched the huge soccer game between Corincas and Sao Paolo. It was a big game because of the teams long time rivalry. There was actually a riot after too. Maybe it was a good thing that we didn´t go to the game because tickets were too expensive, although, I do like to riot from time to time. After, Silvia took us to a Samba party which is a pre-carnaval party on the street. Even though it was raining really hard people were still giving er on the samba. It was really cool. There was a traditional Brazilian band playing classic samba songs and everyone was having a great time. It´s the Brazilians version of a house party. One person opened up their garage and had a band playing out of it. Then everyone decided to show up and party. Too bad this doesn´t happen in Canada. It was the perfect prelude to Carnaval. I´m leaving tomorrow to Recife-Olinda. The Brazilians that I talked to said it is the best place for Carnaval! It sounds like the only thing I won´t be doing during Carnaval is sleep. After Recife I´ll be in Salvador for a couple days and the Rio de Janeiro for a few. So I´m pretty much getting the full Carnaval experience. The next couple weeks are going to be the most craziest weeks of my life.

No exageration...

Lima, Peru

So I´m back at it again. I´m traveling again and it´s bigger and better. I started my trip in Lima, Peru. I arrived on the night of Feb. 4th. I learned two things about Lima that night. Lima is super hot and humid even at night and people in Lima drive crazy! Instead of signaling, they honk. When they decide to run a red light or a stop sign, they honk. When cabs see people that might possibly want a cab, they honk. When people are happy, sad or just feeling normal....they honk. So in other words, the Lima streets are full of none stop honking.

The next day I checked out the nice views and beaches of Milaflores (The nicer area of Lima). The ocean is surrounded by huge cliffs. Milaflores has an incredible view of the ocean. I was also able to try a famous Peruvian dish, anticucho. It is beef heart. Now before you start to get all grossed out, it is actually really good. It pretty much tastes like steak. If you can ignore that it´s a heart and that it´s still beating you´ll be fine (j/k). That night I met up with my friends that I met on my exchange in Netherlands. We had a few drinks and reminced good times. I also got to try Peruvian sushi and see an interesting Peruvian invention that is pretty much training wheels for chop sticks. I think it would be very popular in Canada.

On Friday I checked out some more of Lima with my Aussie friend and got my Brazilian Visa. It was actually Pisco Sour day in Peru. Pisco Sour is this famous Peruvian drink that is made with limes, eggs, pisco (A liquor) and tons of sugar...it pretty much tastes like a cooler. It is huge in Peru. So that night the owners of the hostel made pisco sours and took us out to the bar district in Lima. That night I learned about what Peruvians call brecceras. They are Peruvian girls who go after foreigner guys. They are aggressive...

On Saturday I met up with Julio and Cole, the two guys I am traveling with. We went out with Julio´s uncle (Who´s younger than him) to another bar district called Avenida de Pizza. It was another fun night minus getting hit on by a gay guy. Allar took us to a really nice beach called Santa Maria outside of Lima. We took a bus there and it was the first time that I saw the poor parts of Lima. There is definitely some sketch places in Lima. It´s actually one of the most dangerous cities in South America. Allar told us to close the window when we were going through La Victoria because people sometimes reach in through the window to steal your stuff. The beach was really nice and I was able to burn myself even more that day. Mission accomplished!

The next few days were pretty chill. I stayed at Julio´s grandparents place and got to try some traditional Peruvian food like: Lomo Saltado, Cebicha and some Peruvian soups. We pretty much ate like Peruvian kings.

We also checked out some of the cheap cheap markets in La Victoria. Remember that place? It´s the sketch place where we closed the window of the bus to be safe. Yep, we were pretty much the only white guys in the most dangerous area of Lima. Good thing Julio´s uncle was with us. Oh man, the market was great though. Everything is fake and everything is cheap. We weven managed not to get mugged. Bonus!

Overall, Lima was nice. Lima doesn´t have the best rep from tourists but I had a good time. Next stop Sao Paolo...