SAO PAULO

Our last morning in Rio, we had breakfast, packed then had a final wander and drink on Copacabana beach before catching a taxi to the airport to fly to Sao Paulo.   Here we met up with a good Brazilian friend of mine, Patricia, who spent a year living in the UK.  Patricia met us at the airport and took us to her mums house in Sao Paulo where she lives most of the time.  Her mum had been excited to see us, serving us drinks in her best cup and saucers thinking we were posh English people like Will and Kate!   Her mum served us a light lunch then Patricia took us for a drive around Sao Paulo and along Paulista Avenue.  We had a wander around some of the shops and art/craft stalls, ate ice cream then went for a lovely meal in the evening.  It was a public holiday day so busy everywhere.

The following day we headed out to Patricia's house in the country, near Botucatu, a three hour drive from Sao Paulo.  We were told Sao Paulo traffic was a nightmare and usually gridlocked, we were extremely luckily the roads out of the city were moving freely because of the holiday day. We stopped for a break on the way at a retail outlet shopping centre where Nigel finally found a 2014 World Cup T-shirt at a bargain price.  We drove a bit further then stopped for a delicious lunch, parmigiana - thinly sliced breaded beef covered in a tomato and cheese sauce.  There is a lot of Italian influence in the food in Brazil.  Just a short drive further and we reached Patricia's beautiful house in the countryside where we stayed for two nights.  It was in a beautiful setting, very peaceful and relaxing.  We had a lazy afternoon chilling and Patricia and I went on a short walk to a small pond and just got back before it started raining.  Patricia was happy to see the rain, it was supposed to be wet season but there's been no rain for the last twenty days or more. Sao Paulo is in a state of emergency for water supplies due to lack of rain for the last year.  In the evening we went out for pizza to a local restaurant.

The next day we all went for a longer walk around where Patricia lives.   We saw loads of lovely birds and plants and what we think were Cougar tracks.  Walking back we got soaked as it rained again but it wasn't cold.  Patricia and I jumped in the car and went for a coffee at a local estancia where they sell loads of local organic produce.  We then drove back to pick up Nigel from the house and went for lunch at another lovely local rustic cafe serving traditional Brazilian country buffet food. We had another lovely lazy afternoon, siesta time.  It was lovely to just spend time with Patricia relaxing in her lovely house and not be rushing here there and everywhere doing the tourist thing, thank you Patricia x.

We we up early on our last day in South America leaving Patricia's house at 6am to drive back to Sao Paulo to fly to New Zealand.